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CHRONICLES 


THE  BUILDEES 


OF  THE 


COMMONWEALTH 


Ifoistorfcal  Cbaractcr 


BY 

HUBERT    HOWE    BANCROFT 


VOLUME    II 


SAN  FRANCISCO 
THE  HISTORY  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS 

1892 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1890,  by 

HUBERT   H.  BANCROFT, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


LIST  OF  STEEL-PLATE  POETEAITS. 


VOLUME  II. 

PAGE 

LORENZO  SAWYER Frontispiece. 

JOHN  G.  DOWNEY 120 

GEORGE  C.  PERKINS 138 

ORVILLE  C.  PRATT 232 

JAMES  A.  WAYMIRE 263 

MILTON  A.  WHEATON 275 

GEORGE  HYDE 286 

ANNIS  MERRILL 295 

CHARLES  MACLAY 307 

ROBERT  M.  WIDNEY 318 

JEREMIAH  F.  SULLIVAN 331 

PETER  DEAN .' 339 

CHARLES  F.  LOTT 350 

MATTHEW  P.  DEADY 465 

HENRY  W.  CORBETT 572 

SOLOMON  HIRSCH 594 

LA  FAYETTE  GROVER 604 

PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM 616 

VAN  B.  DE  LASHMUTT 644 

JOSEPH  SIMON 650 


741957 


CONTENTS  OF  THIS  VOLUME. 


CHAPTER   I. 

GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY   AND   GENERAL   VIEW. 

PAGB 

Immigration  and  Colonization— Latin,  Teuton,  Slav,  and  Muscovite — 
Anglo-Saxon  Nation-building — Gold,  Furs,  and  Religion — Incor- 
porated Monopoly — New  Spain  and  New  Mexico — Rule  of  the 
Conquerors — Indian  Affairs — Penal  Colonies — Mexico,  Viceregal, 
Imperial,  and  Republican — Ecclesiastical  Rule — U.  S.  Civil  War — 
Militia  System — Judicial  and  Military — Laws  of  the  Miners — Vigi- 
lance Committees — Alcaldes — Banditti — Buccaneers — Filibusters — 
Mexican  War  and  a  New  Imperialism — Governors  and  States — 
Bossism — Female  Voting 1 

CHAPTER   II. 

LIFE   OF   LORENZO   SAWYER. 

The  California  Judiciary — Ancestry  and  Parentage — A  Golden  Wedding 
— Early  Career — Study  of  the  Law — Overland  Journey — Historic 
Law  Books — At  Nevada  City — In  San  Francisco — District  Court 
Judge — Chief  Justice — Circuit  Court  Judge — Professional  Views  and 
Decisions — Grand  Lodge  Oration — The  Stanford  University — The 
Central  Pacific — Career  and  Character 25 

CHAPTER  III. 

GOVERNMENT — CENTRAL   AMERICA   AND   MEXICO. 

Aboriginal  Rule — Discovery  of  Tierra  Firme — The  Mayas  and  the  Na- 
huas — Conquest  of  Darien — Conquest  of  Mexico — Viceregal  Epoch 
— Revolutionary  Epoch— Judicial  and  Military — Modern  Epoch ....  66 

CHAPTER   IV. 

LIFE   OF   JOHN   G.    DOWNEY. 

Political  Campaign  of  1859 — Parentage,  Ancestry,  and  Education — 
Business  Apprenticeship — Journey  to  Cailfornia — Early  Experience 
— At  Los  Angeles — Real  Estate  and  Building — Mrs  Downey — Politi- 
cal Career — The  Parsons  Bulkhead  Bill — Opinions  of  the  Press — 

Approbation  of  the  Governor's  Policy 120 

(iii) 


iy  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    V. 

LIFE  OF  GEORGE  CLEMENT  PERKINS.  PAGE 

Ancestry,  Parentage,  and  Education — At  Sea — Interview  with  King 
Oscar — Arrival  in  California — Store-keeping  at  Oroville — Goodall, 
Nelson,  and  Perkins — Pacific  Coast  Railway — Other  Enterprises — 
Political  Career — Governor  of  California — Charitable  and  Fraternal 
Societies — Wife  and  Children — Appearance  and  Character 138 

CHAPTER  VI. 

POLITICAL   HISTORY   AND   GOVERNMENT   TN    CALIFORNIA. 

Mission  Estalishments — California  under  Spanish  and  Mexican  Rule — Ac- 
quisition by  the  United  States — Discovery  of  Gold — Organization  of 
Government — Elections  and  Legislative  Proceedings — The  Judiciary 
and  Military — Party  Politics  and  the  Progress  of  Affairs 155 

CHAPTER    VII. 

LIFE   OF   ORVILLE   C.    PRATT. 

The  Bar  and  Judiciary  of  the  Pacific  Coast — Nativity  and  Education — 
At  West  Point— Legal  Studies— In  Practice  at  Rochester — At  Galena 
— Mission  to  Oregon — Incidents  of  the  Journey — Shipwrecked — 
Supreme  Court  Judge — The  Whitman  Massacre  Case — Other  Trials 
— The  Location  Controversy — Judicial  Career  in  California — Decis- 
ion— Business  Transactions — Marriage — Character 232 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

LIFE   OF  JAMES  ANDREW   WAYMIRE. 

Ancestry  and  Parentage — Migration  to  Oregon — Early  Career — Military 
Record — Reporting — Law  Practice  in  San  Francisco — Superior  Court 
Judge — The  Veterans'  Home — Wife  and  Children— Residence  at 
Alameda— Tastes  and  Proclivities 263 

CHAPTER   IX. 

MILTON   ALVORD   WHEATON. 

Forensic  Leaders — Ancestors — Father  and  Mother — Nativity — Boyhood 
— Education — Arrival  in  California — Law  Practice — Patent  Cases — 
The  Spaulding  Suits — Eastern  Retainers — Habits — Industry — Poli- 
tical Views — Religion — Wife  and  Family — Characteristics 275 

CHAPTER   X. 

LIFE   OF   GEORGE   HYDE. 

A  Typical  Argonaut — Birth  and  Education — Voyage  to  California — 
Alcalde— Land  System— Surveys— Groundless  Accusations— The 
Committee  of  Citizens — Exculpation  of  Mr  Hyde — Attitude  of  Gov- 
ernor Mason — Professional  Career — Marriage — Children — Appear- 
ance—Character.. .  286 


CONTENTS.  v 

CHAPTER   XL 

LIFE   OF  ANNIS   MERRILL.  PAGE 

Ancestry — Home — Education  of  Head  and  Hands — Tuition  Earned — 
Teacher  and  Lawyer — Practical  Beneficence — Quiet  Moral  and  Intel- 
lectual Force . .  ...  295 


CHAPTER   XII. 

LIFE   OF   CHARLES   MACLAY. 

The  Clerical  Profession — Lineage — Robert  Maclay — John  Maclay — 
Other  Members  of  the  Family — Education  of  Charles  Maclay — 
Mission  Work — At  Santa  Clara — Political  Career — Senator — Politi- 
cal Views— The  San  Fernando  Tract— Theological  College— Mrs 
Maclay — Children — Summary 307 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

LIFE   OF  ROBERT   M.    WIDNEY. 

Self-made  Men  an  Inspiration— Study  of  a  Portrait— Ancestry— Edu- 
cation— Working  Westward — The  Building  of  the  Human  Frame — 
Early  Experiences  in  California — Originality  of  Thought  and  Action 
—Educational  Institutions— The  Financial  Problem 318 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

LIFE   OF   JEREMIAH   FRANCIS   SULLIVAN. 

From  Obscurity  to  Eminence— Exemplary  Parents— Their  Character  and 
Example— The  Virtue  of  Labor  and  Integrity— Adjudication  of  Cele- 
brated Cases — Religion  and  Politics 331 

CHAPTER   XV. 

LIFE   OF   PETER   DEAN. 

Genealogy — Arrival  in  California — Mining  Experience — Voyage  of  the 
Schooner  Harriet — A  Rough  Night — Marriage — Journey  to  Idaho — 
President  of  the  Pioneer  Society— Bank  Director— State  Senator — 
Political  Opinions  and  Measures — The  Water  Question — The  Chi- 
nese Question — Appearance  and  Characteristics 339 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

LIFE  OF  CHARLES  FAYETTE  LOTT. 

A  Military  Family— Revolutionary  Days— Choice  of  a  Profession— Over- 
land to  California — Law  Practice — Senator  and  Judge — Opinions 
and  Principles— Marriage— Character  of  Mrs  Lott — The  Family 350 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

GOVERNMENT — INTERIOR   STATES.  PAGE 

Era  of  Wonders — New  and  Strange  Countries  and  Peoples — Arizona 
and  New  Mexico — American  Occupation — Settlement  of  Utah — Mor- 
mons and  Gentiles — Political  Affairs — Exploration  of  Nevada — 
Carson  Valley— The  Comstock  Lode— Statehood— Indian  Troubles- 
Senators — Taxation  and  Revenue  362 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

GOVERNMENT — MID-CONTINENT. 

Exploration  of  Colorado — Gold  Discoveries— Provisional  and  Territorial 
Government — Governor  Gilpin — Indian  Affairs — Statehood — Texas 
under  Spanish  Domination — Revolution,  War,  and  Independence — 
Union  with  the  United  States — Military  and  Judicial — Civil  War  and 
Reconstruction— Progress— The  Mississippi  Valley 411 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

LIFE    OF   MATTHEW   PAUL    DEADY. 

Origin  of  the  Name — Parents,  and  their  Characteristics — Birth,  Early 
Environment,  and  Education — Reputation — Teaching  Experiences 
— Law  Studies  and  Practice — Across  the  Plains  to  Oregon — Politi- 
cal Life — Interest  in  Education — Marriage — Mrs  Deady  and  her 
Family — Presidential  Appointment  of  Judge  Deady — Some  Notable 
Decisions — Oratorical  Ability — Character 465 


CHAPTER  XX. 

GOVERNMENT  AFFAIRS  IN  OREGON. 

Religious  Sects  as  Colonists — Methodists,  Presbyterians,  and  Catholics — 
John  McLoughlin  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company — The  Boundary 
Question — Missionaries  as  Merchants— Land  Claims — Indian  Trou- 
bles— Military  Matters — Provisional  Government — Politics — Judi- 
cial Affairs — Oregon  as  a  Territory  and  as  a  State — Prominent 
Officials..  .  516 


CHAPTER   XXL 

LIFE   OF   HENRY   W.    CORBETT. 

A  Builder  of  Empire — Ancestors  and  Parents — Boyhood — Business  Ven- 
tures in  Oregon— The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad— The  First  National 
Bank— Portland  Board  of  Trade— Boys  and  Girls'  Aid  Society — 
Corbett,  Failing  &  Company — Benefactions — Political  Career — Mar- 
riage— Children — Residence — Appearance  and  Character 572 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

LIFE   OF   SOLOMON    HIRSCH.  PAGE 

The  Reward  of  Self  Help — Success  Attending  Application  to  Business 
and  Strict  Integrity — A  Factor  in  Oregon's  Growth — Remarkable 
Legislative  Career — Recognition  of  Ability  and  Character — A  Man 
Whom  the  People  Appreciate— United  States  Embassador  to  Turkey .  594 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

LIFE   OF   LA   FAYETTE   GROVER. 

Massachusetts  Colony — Grover  Family  in  America — La  Fayette  Grover's 
Early  Experiences — Coming  to  Oregon — Prosecuting  Attorney — 
Member  of  the  Legislature — Officer  of  Volunteers — Member  of  Con- 
gress— Business  Affairs — Governor  of  Oregon — United  States  Sena- 
tor—Character    604 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 

LIFE   OF   PHILIP   A.    MARQUAM. 

Ancestry — Maternal  and  Paternal  Characteristics — Home  Building  in  a 
Wilderness — A  Boy's  Manly  Efforts — Labor  with  Hands  and  Head 
— California  Pioneership — Law  and  Real  Estate  in  Oregon — The  Idea 
that  Controlled  a  Life — A  Long,  Patient,  and  Peculiar  Struggle — 
Its  Happy  and  Useful  Results— The  Individuality  of  a  Strong  and 
Good  Man..  .  616 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

LIFE   OF   VAN    B.    DE   LASHMUTT. 

Pioneer  Versatility  in  Enterprise — The  Union  Cause  in  Utah — Varied 
Factorship — As  a  Builder — Quick  Rise  in  Financial  Importance — 
Active  and  Useful  Citizenship 644 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

LIFE   OF   JOSEPH   SIMON. 

Oregon  and  English  Statesmen — Appearance — Nativity — Business  Career 
— Dolph,  Bellinger,  Mallory,  and  Simon — Portland  City  Council — 
Chairman  of  Republican  State  Central  Committee— State  Senator — 
Measures 650 


CHRONICLES  OF  THE  BUILDERS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND   GENERAL   VIEW. 

IMMIGRATION  AND  COLONIZATION — LATIN,  TEUTON,  SLAV,  AND  MUSCOVITE 
— ANGLO-SAXON  NATION-BUILDING — GOLD,  FURS,  AND  RELIGION— IN- 
CORPORATED MONOPOLY — NEW  SPAIN  AND  NEW  MEXICO — RULE  OF  THE 
CONQUERORS — INDIAN  AFFAIRS — PENAL  COLONIES — MEXICO,  VICERE- 
GAL, IMPERIAL,  AND  REPUBLICAN — ECCLESIASTICAL  RULE — U.  S.  CIVIL 
WAR — MILITIA  SYSTEM — JUDICIAL  AND  MILITARY — LAWS  OF  THE 
MINERS — VIGILANCE  COMMITTEES — ALCALDES — BANDITTI — BUCCANEERS 
— FILIBUSTERS — MEXICAN  WAR  AND  A  NEW  IMPERIALISM — GOVERNORS 
AND  STATES---BOSSISM — FEMALE  VOTING. 

PRIOR  to  the  discovery  of  America,  the  only  outlet 
for  Europe's  surplus  population  was  eastward  ;  and 
along  the  stream  flowing  in  that  direction  civilization 
retrograded  rather  than  advanced.  By  long  religious 
and  other  wars  upon  the  most  frivolous  pretences,  to- 
gether with  famine,  pestilence,  and  the  free  course  of 
numberless  diseases,  the  increase  of  the  human  race 
was  kept  within  bounds.  But  when  Columbus  and 
his  successors  found  a  New  AVorld,  inhabited  only  by 
savages  who  might  easily  be  slain,  there  was  a  fresh 
field  for  Old  World  colonization,  and  a  westward 
stream  of  migration  set  in,  which  ceased  not  its  flow 
until  the  shore  of  the  Pacific  was  reached,  intellec- 
tual culture  and  enlightenment  increasing  rather  than 
diminishing  along  its  course. 

Conditions  being  new,  there  must  be  tried  new 
forms  of  government.  Unable  to  be  present  in  per- 
son, the  sovereign  arm  of  Europe  must  be  lengthened 
so  that  it  might  extend  over  America.  Spain,  Portu- 
gal, and  France,  Holland,  England,  and  Russia,  all 
had  their  New  World  claims  staked  out,  with  mines 
and  plantations  held  by  their  subjects,  and  at  first 

(i) 


2  GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

largely  worked  by  the  enforced  labor  of  native  Ameri- 
cans and  Africans.  But  this  abasing  state  of  things 

O  o 

was  not  destined  always  to  last.  Before  three  cen- 
iuriefe/h^ij' ;  passed  the  native  races  were  thinned,  and 
Europe,  as  .compared  with  her  former  sway,  had 
barely  ;  a ,  footh  odd  in  the  country,  some  sovereigns 
having-  sold  their  possessions,  while  the  subjects  of 
others  threw  off  the  yoke  and  declared  their  inde- 
pendence of  the  mother  country.  The  tendency  of 
the  revolted  colonies  in  form  of  government  was  to- 
ward republicanism,  not  always,  however,  with  at- 
tendant success. 

Direct  colonization  on  a  large  scale,  with  agriculture 
as  a  basis,  was  on  the  northern  continent  virtually  re- 
stricted to  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States, 
thence  spreading  inward  with  gradual  extension  of 
the  frontier  westward.  Elsewhere  it  followed  as  the 
result  of  other  pursuits.  The  Spaniards  were  lured 
onward  by  the  attractions  of  gold  and  slaves,  and 
when  these  declined  their  advance  was  arrested. 
Northward,  for  Teutons  and  Slavs,  as  well  as  for  some 
of  the  Latin  race,  the  main  incentive  was  the  fur- 
trade,  together  with  the  flitting  vision  of  the  inter- 
oceariic  strait,  or  such  erratic  fancies  as  Ponce  de 
Leon's  fountain  of  youth.  The  entry  of  the  Musco- 
vite in  the  northwest  aroused  slumbering  rivals  to  the 
east  as  well  as  south,  and  Spain  pushed  forward  once 
more,  but  with  a  purpose  so  unsustained  as  to  enable 
Great  Britain  to  wedge  herself  in  between  and  seize 
the  bone  of  contention.  Her  advance  agents  being 
in  their  turn  bound  by  the  fetters  of  monopoly,  the 
enterprising  Yankee  took  advantage  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  obtain  a  foothold  by  their  side. 

The  comparatively  feeble  incentives  to  fur-trading 
were  succeeded  by  the  quickening  impulses  of  gold- 
mining,  which  in  power  of  attracting  population  far 
surpassed  the  Anahuac  silver  lodes.  The  yellow  metal 
could  within  a  year  draw  numbers  sufficient  for  a  full- 
fledged  state,  like  California,  and  with  nearly  equal 


COLONIZATION.  3 

speed  it  pluralized  Oregon  in  the  territories  of  Wash- 
ington, Idaho,  and  Montana,  created  Nevada,  Colo- 
rado, and  Arizona,  and  liberated  British  Columbia. 
Never  has  appeared  a  more  powerful  stimulus  to  set- 
tlement, promoting  as  it  does  with  its  vivifying  influ- 
ence a  host  of  varied  industries. 

Other  inducements  toward  occupation  appear,  al- 
though dependent  upon  the  former,  as  traffic  and  rail- 
way transit,  which  build  up  states  and  territories,  and 
by  various  means  contribute  to  prosperity.  Stock- 
raising  conies  to  redeem  the  neglected  mountains  and 
plains  along  the  rocky  ridge  between  Texas  and 
British  Columbia,  and  to  favor  in  a  degree  the  spread 
of  agriculture  and  manufacturing  industries,  to  which 
mining  had  given  foothold. 

In  Utah,  the  religious  element  which  attended  the 
puritan  migration  reappears  to  direct  the  onward 
march,  following  close  on  the  American  occupation  of 
Oregon,  the  latter  being  due  in  its  inception  to  politico- 
patriotic  motives,  and  prompted  in  a  measure  by  the 
invasion  of  Texas.  The  feeling  engendered  by  this 
daring  but  iniquitous  exploit  still  broods  along  the 
Mexican  border,  and  is  fostered  by  the  tacitly  accepted 
doctrine  of  manifest  destiny,  and  the  recollection  of 
filibuster  achievement.  The  negative  colonization 
schemes  of  the  chartered  fur  companies  of  the  north 
in  Alaska,  in  the  Columbia  basin,  and  eastward,  were 
directed  to  their  own  purposes,  and  overshadowed  by 
the  more  congenial  conditions  southward.  Latterly, 
corporate  undertakings  seek  this  channel  for  their 
enrichment,  among  other  ways  by  the  improvement 
of  vast  tracts  of  land  secured  by  monopolists.  Side 
by  side  progresses  cooperative  colonization,  the  success 
of  which  is  broadly  illustrated  in  Utah,  and  in  various 
scattered  settlements,  especially  in  California. 

The  citizens  of  the  United  States  possess  the  col- 
onizing spirit  in  a  degree  unequalled  by  any  other 
people,  having  been  trained  to  it  by  early  back  wood 
struggles.  Their  Spanish  neighbors  lacked  the  essen- 


4          GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

tial  qualities  for  such  performance,  and  moved  only 
under  the  strongest  of  outside  impulses,  flagging  in 
their  exertions  the  moment  these  abated.  Thus  it 
was  most  difficult  to  obtain  colonists  for  the  frontier, 
notwithstanding  the  liberal  offers  of  pay  and  equip- 
ment for  nominal  military  service. 

Before  this  influx  and  advance  of  the  white  race  in 
their  different  paths  and  aims,  the  aboriginal  element 
was  compelled  to  yield,  or  be  crushed  like  a  reed,  as 
indeed,  for  the  most  part,  it  was.  The  culture  and 
high  form  of  monarchic  government  which  had  ex- 
isted among  the  Nahuas  and  Mayas,  since  their  earli- 
est traditions,  were  dissipated  to  the  winds.  The  rise 
and  fall  of  dynasties,  at  times  confounded  with  suc- 
cessive immigrations  of  dominating  tribes,  were 
marked  by  an  aristocratic  ascendancy,  sustained  at 
different  epochs  by  triumvirates  of  leading  rulers  and 
other  alliances,  based  on  vast  military  establishments, 
with  which  conquest  was  carried  on  for  the  diversion 
of  oppressed  subjects  and  the  acquisition  of  tribute, 
slaves,  and  glory.  This  is  observable  particularly  in 
Mexico  and  Guatemala.  In  Yucatan  a  less  able  auto- 
cratic policy  had  permitted  the  once  subjugated  lord- 
lings  to  reassert  themselves,  and  re-divide  the  country 
into  a  number  of  petty  sovereignties. 

Southward,  aboriginal  rulership  subsides  in  like 
manner  into  the  sway  of  the  cacique  with  moderate 
powers,  and  northward  it  resolves  itself  into  that  of 
the  ordinary  chieftain  with  but  nominal  authority.  He 
figures  as  a  leader  in  war,  and  a  representative  during 
negotiations,  and  depends  on  personal  prowess  or  skill 
for  his  election  and  recognition,  deriving  but  slight  in- 
fluence from  inherited  wealth  or  prestige.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  environment  and  the  conditions  of  life  de- 
termine domination.  On  the  plains,  with  their  free, 
inspiring  expanse  and  nomad  life,  leaders  were  alone 
tolerated,  not  rulers,  partly  from  the  facilities  for  dis- 
banding, and  also  on  account  of  the  dispersion  caused 
by  the  search  for  game,  or  fruit,  or  wintering  grounds. 


THE  ABORIGINAL  ELEMENT.  5 

Such  influences  had  their  effect  also  on  the  small  pueblo 
settlements  of  New  Mexico,  with  their  concessions  to 
aspiring  freedom  in  an  elective  republican  form  of  ad- 
ministration, yet  of  oligarchic  stamp.  In  the  small 
and  isolated  villages  of  the  Northwest .  Coast,  with 
dependence  on  family  cooperation  for  home  comforts, 
and  participation  in  the  chase  by  land  and  sea,  the 
tendency  was  to  patriarchal  sway,  with  a  certain  def- 
erence to  age  and  accumulated  possessions. 

The  conquest  of  the  Indians  by  the  white  men  was 
favored  by  a  variety  of  means,  among  them  superior- 
ity of  arms  and  intelligence  on  the  one  side,  and  on 
the  other  the  lack  of  confederated  strength,  and  the 
discord  which  has  so  often  undermined  national  exis- 
tence. In  Mexico,  Aztec  rule  had  become  detested 
through  excessive  exactions  and  the  demands  for  hu- 
man sacrifice  among  subjugated  peoples,  while  unwise 
restrictions  against  the  powerful  merchant  class,  and 
the  undue  elevation  of  the  nobles,  had  infused  wide 
discontent  among  the  inferior  ranks  of  subjects.  The 
superstition  which  invested  the  Cortesian  band  with 
divine  attributes  tended  to  break  the  allegiance  up- 
held chiefly  by  fear ;  and  so  alliances  were  gained, 
and  one  tribe  pitted  against  another,  to  fight  for  a 
conqueror  whose  astuteness  was  supplemented  by  such 
phenomenal  weapons  as  steel,  fire-arms,  and  coats  of 
mail.  Similar  Machiavellian  practices  were  adopted  by 
the  fur-trader  and  settlers  northward,  augmented  by 
that  potent  element  of  discord  and  weakness,  alcohol. 

The  paternal  government  urged  on  its  minions,  in- 
cluding many  a  cruel  Pizarro,  treacherous  Olid,  or 
unscrupulous  Alvarado.  Grants,  franchises,  and  en- 
comiendas  were  freely  bestowed,  with  the  enticing 
gubernatorial  dignity  and  powers,  and  with  authority 
to  augment  their  own  importance  and  the  domain  and 
wealth  of  their  suzerain  by  offering  similar  subordinate 
concessions  to  friends  and  officers,  over  territories  yet 
to  be  conquered.  With  such  inducements  were  over- 
run and  occupied  one  section  of  Spanish  America 


6  GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

after  another,  as  far  north  as  New  Mexico  by  land 
and  Nootka  by  sea,  with  power  to  extort  and  enslave, 
in  the  name  of  king  and  church.  Here  Spanish  ardor 
flagged,  in  the  absence  of  attractions  such  as  alone 
could  stir  to  the  achievements  of  a  Cortes,  who,  cutting 
off  retreat  by  burning  his  ships,  set  forth  to  conquer 
or  to  die.  Later,  the  resistance  of  a  band  of  Apaches, 
or  the  repelling  aspect  of  a  border  range,  sufficed  to 
check  the  advance,  and  the  once  formidable  aggressor 
fell  back  on  the  defensive,  driven  later  by  jealousy  to 
attempt  one  stroke  more  for  the  possession  of  the 
coast. 

The  fur  companies  of  the  far  north  also  represented 
the  crown  in  holding  its  domain  and  protecting  its 
interests.  The  grant  of  a  charter  was  partly  for  se- 
curing a  certain  proportion  of  the  revenue,  partly  to 
protect  the  natives  against  the  reckless  horde  of  free 
traders  intent  on  temporary  gain.  Monopoly  had  its 
value  here  in  securing  prudent  administration  of  ter- 
ritorial resources,  as  in  Alaska,  where  it  saves  the 
seals  from  extermination  by  confining  the  slaughter 
to  proper  limits,  and  the  Indians,  by  humane  and  equit- 
able treatment,  to  their  benefit  and  security,  but  always, 
of  course,  to  the  white  man's  profit. 

Fur  monopoly  came  as  a  natural  result  of  distance 
from  the  base  of  supplies,  and  of  the  growing  insolence 
of  the  Indians  toward  the  free  trapping  parties,  who 
were  forced  to  unite  under  well-selected  leaders.  In 
the  extreme  north,  the  severity  of  the  climate  gave 
additional  advantage  to  combinations.  With  their 
future  occupation  assured,  there  was  perfected  an 
elaborate  system  of  management,  under  the  eyes  of  a 
graded  corps  of  officials,  from  the  viceregal  governor 
and  the  gubernatorial  factor  to  the  clerk  and  boatman. 

The  attitude  of  the  traders  toward  the  Indians  dif- 
fered materially  from  that  of  the  government.  The 
latter  relied  chiefly  upon  its  armaments  to  sustain  the 
somewhat  arbitrary  dictates  of  sovereigns;  the  for- 
mer, depending  upon  the  aborigines  for  food,  trade, 


THE  FUR   COMPANIES.  7 

and  the  safety  of  scattered  parties,  had  recourse  to 
diplomacy.  They  prudently  recognized  the  inherited 
right  to  ancestral  hunting-grounds,  paying  even  for 
the  game  taken  therefrom  by  hunters,  dealing  fairly 
with  them  in  barter,  courting  them  as  customers,  and 
seeking  to  establish  confidence..  Such  considerate 
policy  brought  about  the  happy  relationship  existing 
in  British  territory,  so  different  from  the  infelicities 
resulting  in  the  United  States,  where  irresponsible 
persons  sacrificed  future  prospects  for  a  fancied  mo- 
mentary gain.  At  the  same  time  vigorous  measures 
were  adopted  to  enforce  good  behavior,  by  withdraw- 
ing from  objectionable  districts  a  trade  which  brought 
comforts  and  luxuries,  by  inexorable  justice  and  well- 
calculated  punishments  for  offenses,  by  rewarding 
friendly  chieftains  with  gifts  and  honors,  and  by  bal- 
ancing the  power  of  the  various  tribes  against  each 
other. 

The  Russians  took  the  precaution  of  exacting  host- 
ages from  powerful  tribes,  and  impressing,  without 
mercy,  the  scattered  and  helpless  Aleuts,  under  the 
plea  of  tribute  to  the  tzar.  Enslavement  came 
naturally  to  the  Muscovite,  with  his  serf-system.  The 
Spanish  encomendero  likewise  used  tribute  as  a  pre- 
text for  enslavement,  and  for  shielding  his  iniquities 
from  the  authorities,  adding  conversion  as  a  further 
cloak  for  oppression.  After  the  abolition  of  slavery 
and  serfdom,  designing  employers  found  here  an  excel- 
lent substitute  in  peonage,  taking  advantage  of  the 
extravagance  and  poverty  of  the  masses  to  enchain 
them  in  debt-bondage. 

Colonists  of  the  Latin  and  Teutonic  races  differed 
as  radically  in  their  treatment  of  the  Indians  as  did 
the  fur-trader  and  the  government.  To  the  former 
they  had  been  as  a  quany,  luring  them  on  to  pursuit, 
but  with  whom  they  were  not  debarred  from  inter- 
mingling. Every  fresh  advance  brought  a  closer  in- 
timacy, marked  by  the  rise  of  a  new  race,  which  was 
to  rehabilitate  the  maternal  ancestry,  liberate  the  na- 


8  GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

tion,  and  revive  its  ancient  glories.  The  Indian  re- 
sponded to  these  influences  by  contributing*  from  his 
own  fold  some  of  the  foremost  rulers  and  scholars. 
Similar  was  the  attitude  of  the  French  in  Canada 
and  the  Slavs  in  Alaska.  The  fur  companies,  indeed, 
favored  intermarriage  as  a  bond  with  which  to  re- 
strain the  natives,  and  as  producing  a  docile,  half- 
breed  race,  whereby  were  promoted  trade  and  security. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  on  the  other  hand  held  aloof  from 
the  despised  native,  whether  for  intercourse  or  en- 
slavement, pushing  him  back  step  by  step.  The  work 
he  would  do  himself;  he  preferred  a  white  mother  for 
his  children ;  therefore  the  best  thing  the  savage 
could  do  was  to  get  out  of  the  way,  and  to  die  quickly. 
The  government  raised  in  the  land-reservation  a  fur- 
ther official  barrier,  within  which  the  doomed  race 
might  linger  a  little,  and  so  take  somewhat  of  the 
shame  of  it  from  our  most  Christian  civilization. 

The  conduct  of  the  Spaniard  was,  at  first,  even 
worse,  with  its  shameless  extortion,  its  steel  and  lash, 
though  neither  cut  so  deep  as  the  cold,  withering  dis- 
dain of  the  blue:eyed  master.  The  friars  interposed 
their  influence  in  favor  of  the  Indians,  and  secured 
for  them  humane  laws,  which,  however,  were  poorly 
executed. 

The  policy  of  the  United  States  was  not  alone  less 
humane,  but  less  scrupulous  and  equitable.  To  fierce 
and  mischievous  tribes  were  given  liberal  concessions 
in  land,  provisions,  annuities,  and  aid  in  establishing 
farms,  with  ready  forgiveness  for  repeated  delinquen- 
cies ;  nevertheless,  the  border  settlers  would  kill  them 
off.  Even  worse  than  this  was  the  treatment  ac- 
corded to  peaceful  and  deserving  bands,  like  the 
Pueblos  of  New  Mexico,  and  the  Mission  Indians 
who,  in  California,  had  laid  the  basis  for  colonzation, 
and  planted  its  vineyards  and  gardens.  These  were 
neglected,  and  surrendered  to  despoilers  who  scrupled 
not  to  drive  the  latter  from  the  homes  which  had 
been  occupied  by  them  for  generations.  Other  weak 


TREATMENT  OF  NATIVES.  9 

tribes  managed  by  continued  remonstrance  to  obtain 
a  scanty  allowance  of  the  poorest  of  land,  there  to 
be  further  starved  by  dishonest  agents. 

Because  they  had  been  more  sinned  against,  the 
tribes  of  the  United  States  had  more  sins  to  answer 
for  than  the  aborigines  of  either  the  north  or  south. 
The  independence  growing  out  of  a  roaming  life,  and 
the  thieving  disposition,  especially  of  the  fisher  peo- 
ples of  the  Pacific  coast,  tended  in  no  wise  to  lessen 
the  fierceness  of  their  retaliations,  out  of  which  grew 
so  long  a  series  of  bloody  deeds  on  both  sides.  The 
advantage  of  forbearance  and  prudence  has,  neverthe- 
less, bdfcn  demonstrated  by  the  fur  companies,  and  by 
the  Mormons,  who  had  comparatively  little  trouble 
with  the  surrounding  savages,  as  they  treated  them 
in  a  measure  like  brethren. 

Even  when  yielding  to  circumstances,  and  engaging 
in  civilized  pursuits,  the  Indian  is  decried  as  degrad- 
ing labor,  and  so  doing  injury  to  white  men  in  peace 
as  well  as  in  war.  The  same  evil  influence  is  ascribed 
to  the  Chinese,  so  useful  in  laying  the  foundation  for 
industrial  enterprise,  and  the  object  of  loud  denun- 
ciation on  the  part  of  white  workmen,  resulting  in  such 
emphatic  protests  against  the  race  as  its  expulsion 
from  many  a  camp  and  town,  the  San  Francisco 
riot  of  1877,  the  subsequent  massacre  in  the  Wyo- 
ming coal  mines,  and  the  restrictive  congressional 
enactment  against  Mongol  immigration. 

The  convict  element  roused  similar  feelings  in  for- 
mer times.  The  continent  was  for  a  long  period 
regarded  as  a  penal  colony  by  different  nations. 
Spain,  France,  and  England  sent  hither  their  convicts 
and  paupers,  and  life  in  so  remote  and  uncivilized  a 
region  was  regarded  as  banishment  by  political  and 
religious  officials.  Subsequently  California,  as  one  of 
the  frontiers  of  Mexico,  became  the  penal  station  for 
that  country,  until  she  was  obliged  to  protest  against 
the  dumping  of  malefactors  upon  her  shores.  Alaska 
was  colonized  chiefly  by  condemned  criminals  from 


10         GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW 

Siberia.  The  gold  rush  brought  with  it  similar  refuse, 
especially  from  the  penal  settlements  of  Australia. 
Of  late,  objections  are  raised  against  prison  competition 
in  industrial  branches. 

Colonization  was  attended  by  large  grants  of  lands, 
a  necessary  inducement  to  attract  occupants,  partly 
for  the  protection  of  border  settlements  against  savage 
raids,  partly  for  political  ends,  as  instanced  not  long 
ago  by  the  United  States  in  Oregon.  Mexico  was  so 
liberal  in  this  respect  as  to  concede  to  individuals 
areas  sufficient  to  form  several  counties,  and  which, 
after  the  transfer  of  territory  in  1848,  had  to  be  re- 
duced to  reasonable  limits.  Mexico  is  still  generous 
with  her  vacant  tracts,  but  more  careful  in  imposing 
conditions  commensurate  with  the  offer.  The  United 
States  likewise  continues  to  dispose  of  her  rapidly 
diminishing  land  with  little  regard  to  its  absorption 
by  far-seeing  speculators.  The  evil  of  such  extrava- 
gance, as  in  giving  it  to  railways,  and  permitting  vast 
water- privileges  and  monopolizations,  is  making  itself 
apparent  with  the  growth  of  settlements,  and  becom- 
ing a  source  of  discontent,  to  which  the  government 
should  have  given  attention  long  ago,  partly  by  more 
careful  limitation  of  grants  and  franchises,  partly  by 
equitable  taxation  and  other  measures  to  enforce  a 
subdivision  of  lands  and  equalization  of  burdens  and 
advantages. 

A  striking  feature  of  American  colonization  has 
been  the  vast  migration  by  sea  and  land  in  the  path 
of  pioneer  explorers.  In  Spanish  America  we  find  it 
impelled  first  by  gubernatorial  appointees  bent  on 
conquering  and  occupying  the  tracts  assigned  to  them, 
as  in  New  Mexico;  then  by  mining  excitements, 
which  quickly  dotted  the  wilderness  with  camps, 
towns,  and  farms.  In  the  north  the  more  self-reliant 
Anglo-Saxons  pushed  forward  the  border  of  their  own 
accord,  seizing  or  nominally  buying  the  land.  Here, 
also,  began  the  most  daring  of  the  migrations,  across 
the  vast  breadth  of  the  continent,  shortly  to  swell  to 


COLONIZATION.  11 

unparallelled  proportions  under  the  stimulus  of  gold. 
The  Oregon  movement  was  prompted  largely  by  the 
success  of  the  Texas  influx,  both  of  a  political  tint,  yet 
the  former  presenting  the  additional  attraction  of  a 
sea-board.  A  long-instilled  restlessness  of  disposition 
tended  to  sustain  the  westward  exodus,  now  attracted 
chiefly  by  a  favorable  climate  and  cognate  advantages. 
The  most  ably  conducted  of  these  migrations  must  be 
ascribed  to  the  Mormons,  of  whom  a  body  of  five 
thousand  proceeded,  without  a  mishap,  under  their 
great  leader  to  the  promised  land.  This  peculiar  peo- 
ple stands  preeminent  as  successful  colonists  of  modern 
type,  demonstrating  to  the  nation  the  value  of  the  so- 
called  desert  lands  of  the  Rocky  mountain  slopes. 

The  United  States  present  a  broad  example  of 
happy  achievements  through  practical  ideas  and  well 
directed  energy.  In  the  progress  of  the  liberation  of 
mind  and  body  since  the  middle  ages,  marked  by  the 
elevation  of  the  lower  classes  to  greater  participation 
in  social  and  political  compacts  and  enjoyments,  this 
country  gave  the  most  decisive  of  impulses.  In  their 
original  struggle  and  intercourse  with  nature,  the 
colonists  acquired  that  self-reliance  which  suggested 
self-government  of  a  high  order.  The  lesson  reacted 
on  Europe,  whence  fugitives  had  come  for  relief,  and 
for  the  practise  of  the  liberal  principles  now  coming 
into  vogue.  The  result  was  the  French  revolution. 
Now,  with  strength  multiplied,  the  agitation  swung 
back  to  America,  to  evoke  fresh  revolutions  and  the 
formation  of  a  series  of  republics. 

In  the  United  States,  democracy  was  due  to  the 
independent  self-reliance  of  the  people,  who  objected 
to  the  aristocratic  ascendancy  of  some  of  their  number 
and  the  humiliation  of  others.  Hence  was  brought 
forward  the  old  Roman  idea  of  federation,  to  which 
tended  the  natural  and  colonial  divisions  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  desultory  and  disconnected  character  of 
the  independence  war. 

The  instances  of  such  government  in  other  lands,  as 


12        GOVERNMENT-INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

in  Switzerland,  had  served  toward  the  reawakening 
of  Europe,  through  such  potent  mediums  as  Voltaire 
and  his  contemporaries  and  followers.  In  aboriginal 
America  we  also  find  a  striking  example  in  Tlascala, 
whose  republican  principles  assisted  a  petty  state  to 
withstand  the  combined  hosts  of  monarchical  armies, 
but  they  were  obscured  under  ages  of  oppression  like 
the  flickering  light  of  similar  governments  among  the 
Pueblos. 

The  importance  of  Mexico,  in  population  and  re- 
sources, had  lifted  her  rapidly  from  a  gubernatorial 
district  to  a  captain-generalcy  and  viceroy alty,  and 
her  preeminence  in  America,  was  overshadowed  only 
for  a  time  by  the  Peruvian  silver  region.  A  narrow- 
minded  colonial  policy  made  the  American  possessions 
subservient  to  the  interests  of  the  mother  country,  to 
the  restriction  or  obliteration  of  local  industries,  and 
the  consequent  impoverishment  of  the  masses,  coupled 
with  excessive  duties  and  other  imposts.  The  enforce- 
ment of  the  exactions,  and  the  fear  of  smoldering  dis- 
content, as  manifested  in  occasional  feeble  conspiracies, 
led  to  the  further  injustice  of  conferring  all  valuable 
and  influential  offices  in  church  and  state  upon  Span- 
iards from  the  peninsula,  and  upon  the  circle  round 
the  throne,  regardless  of  the  claims  and  services  of 
the  Creoles.  As  a  check  upon  the  ambition  of  the 
appointed  favorites,  the  judicial  audiencias  were  here 
invested  with  the  attributes  of  councils  and  semi- 
supervisory  bodies,  under  control  of  the  all-directing 
council  of  the  Indies  in  Spain. 

Here  then  were  causes  for  the  growing  dislovalty 

O  O  «/  *J 

far  more  serious  than  those  which  stirred  to  revolt 
the  New  England  settlers — a  disloyalty  which 
awaited  only  the  prostration  of  Spain  under  another 
European  power  to  assert  itself.  The  lowest  and  the 
highest  classes  were  the  last  to  be  won  over  to  the 
movement  by  concession  on  the  part  of  the  people  at 
large.  And  the  steps  taken  by  the  crown  to  con- 
ciliate the  masses,  tended  all  the  more  to  sever  the 


MEXICAN  COLONIAL  POLICY.  13 

last  cord  which  held  in  bondage  the  superior  strata  that 
controlled  the  wealth  of  the  country.  Personal  am- 
bition entered  the  arena  to  turn  the  scale  at  the  right 
moment.  The  deliverance  of  Mexico  was  quickly 
followed  by  that  of  Central  America. 

Local  participation  in  government  was  extremely 
circumscribed  in  the  Spanish  colonies  until  this  deliv- 
erance had  been  consummated.  In  the  new  partition 
of  power  the  Indians  secured  a  share  through  secu- 
larization, a  term  which  attained  its  full  significance 
only  in  republican  days.  After  sufficient  training  by 
the  missionaries  in  the  election  of  and  subordination 
to  officials  chosen  from  among  themselves,  they  were 
to  be  entrusted  with  local  self-government,  under  the 
guidance  of  priests,  which  made  it  indeed  at  the  first 
but  another  form  of  church  rule.  The  missionaries 
were  naturally  averse  to  releasing  their  hold  upon  so 
profitable  and  convenient  a  pupilage,  and  therefore 
retarded  the  training  of  their  wards,  or  pointed  sig- 
nificantly to  the  danger  of  relaxing  their  control  over 
semi-savage  bands.  Nevertheless,  the  liberation  pro- 
gressed. The  mestizo  has  supplanted  the  Spaniard 
in  leadership,  but  the  more  conservative  Indian  is, 
nevertheless,  creeping  to  the  front. 

The  disorders  of  the  mestizo  rule  made  that  more 
prudent  race  welcome  the  restoration  of  the  empire  en- 
deared to  them  by  their  long-nursed  traditions.  In 
the  first  instance,  under  Iturbide,  the  empire  suc- 
cumbed to  faction,  as  did  centralism,  which  reduced 
states  to  departments  under  appointees  from  the  capi- 
tal. The  second  empire,  wherein  the  French  sought 
to  harmonize  conflicting  elements,  failed  chiefly  from 
patriotic  aversion  to  foreign  intervention. 

The  cause  for  the  virtual  failure  of  republicanism 
in  Spanish- America  is  to  be  ascribed  not  merely  to 
the  turbulent  mestizo  spirit,  but  also  to  the  preemi- 
nence of  the  church  in  political  as  well  as  social  life. 
The  ecclesiastical  bodies  had  been  useful  in  spreading 
the  conquest,  and  in  sustaining  domination  and  pro- 


14        GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

tecting  colonists  and  Indians  alike.  In  seeking  to 
guard  the  latter  against  oppression,  they  were 
prompted  not  alone  by  feelings  of  humanity  but  by 
self-interest.  They  would  retain  their  power  and 
share  in  the  profits  arising  from  enforced  labor ;  any 
encroachment  on  the  prerogatives  of  their  order  at 
once  arousing  jealousy.  Their  control  over  the  In- 
dians extended  further  than  the  home  circle,  or  the 
domain  of  conscience,  penetrating  into  economic  and 
political  channels.  This  system  was  beneficial  only 
to  a  certain  degree,  after  which  it  became  an  obstacle 
to  progress,  as  among  white  devotees,  keeping  them 
in  ignorance  and  retrogressive  pupilage. 

The  revolution  did  not  suit  the  plans  of  the  higher 
clergy,  nor  would  it  have  been  palatable  to  the  in- 
ferior orders,  but  for  the  enforcement  of  liberal  meas- 
ures by  the  new  Spanish  regime.  A  change  being 
inevitable,  they  took  steps  to  secure  all  possible  ad- 
vantage for  themselves,  in  establishing  the  Iturbide 
empire.  Failing  to  sustain  it,  and  finding  their  in- 
fluence waning  under  the  efforts  of  liberals  for  the 
elevation  of  the  masses,  they  sent  their  party  into  the 
field,  regardless  of  the  bloodshed  which  was  certain 
to  ensue.  Their  vast  possessions  in  lands,  buildings, 
and  funds,  the  accumulation  of  centuries  from  legacies 
and  contributions,  and  their  sway  over  superstitious 
communities,  served  to  sustain  the  fratricidal  struggle 
for  half  a  century.  The  success  of  the  liberals  was 
but  a  question  of  time.  The  eyes  of  the  people  were 
at  last  opened  to  the  real  motives  of  the  church  party 
and  the  conservatives,  whose  interests  were  almost 
identical ;  and  then  were  clipped  the  wings  of  the  vul- 
ture, by  confiscation  of  the  vast  property  so  badly 
utilized,  by  the  separation  of  church  and  state,  and  by 
restricting  all  noxious  interference  of  the  clergy.  To 
this  curtailment  of  ecclesiastic  influence  is  greatly  due 
the  long  period  of  peace  now  being  enjoyed,  together 
with  an  industrial  development  and  prosperity  hith- 
erto unparalleled. 


THE  CLERGY.  15 

Religion  also  tinged  the  political  acts  of  the  na- 
tions northward.  It  helped  to  hold  the  rein  over  the 
natives  of  Alaska,  while  French  missionaries  entered 
the  field  occupied  by  fur-traders.  The  puritan  fervor 
of  New  England  pervaded  her  scattered  communities 
down  to  a  late  date,  and  may  be  traced  even  now  in 
her  Sunday  laws  and  the  like.  The  feeling  served 
between  the  onward-pushing  settlements  as  a  bond 
for  cooperation  and  defence,  as  it  did  in  Spanish 
America  between  conquerors  and  serfs  for  mutual  for- 
bearance. The  United  States  government  did  not 

o 

despise  the  aid  of  missionaries  in  taming  the  fierce 
spirit  of  its  wards,  and  in  Oregon  it  gladly  availed 
itself  of  their  services  to  secure  this  fertile  region. 

O 

The  power  of  religion  as  a  political  factor  is  most 
strikingly  illustrated  bv  the  Mormons,  under  whose 

O    t/  «/ 

hierarchy  a  wilderness  was  transformed  into  a  flourish- 
ing realm.  In  the  surrender  of  rights  and  tribute  to 
able  leaders,  the  common  people  have  been  compen- 
sated by  temporal  prosperity,  largely  through  coop- 
eration. 

The  United  States  had  also  their  civil  war.  The 
slave-holding  aristocracy  had  gradually  developed  into 
a  cancer  upon  their  political  system,  which  the  union 
party  made  a  determined  effort  to  eradicate.  It  was 
a  struggle  for  lofty  principle.  Several  states  wavered 
in  their  allegiance.  New  Mexico  appeared  somewhat 
indifferent  until  roused  by  an  invasion  from  Texas. 
Utah,  which  had  not  long  before  rebelled  against  fed- 
eral intermeddling,  nevertheless  espoused  the  northern 
side,  hoping  for  a  reward  far  different  from  what  it 
received.  In  other  territories  the  two  parties  were 
pacified  by  mutual  concessions,  as  in  Colorado,  where 
the  press  joined  admirably  in  a  conciliatory  attitude, 
which  won  over  the  vacillating  democrats. 

Notwithstanding  the  bitterness  of  party  spirit  dur- 
ing the  war,  marked  in  some  interior  and  remote  re- 
gions, as  in  Idaho  and  Montana,  by  riotous  proceedings, 
the  taint  upon  democracy  quickly  passed  away,  and  the 


16        GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

party  regained  power  soon  after  the  war,  even  in  such 
states  as  Nevada,  which  owed  everything  to  the  re- 
publicans. The  change  was  due  partly  to  the  influx 
of  southern  sympathizers  in  the  ever  varying  current 
of  mining  population,  to  republican  corruption,  to  the 
filling  of  federal  offices  with  little  regard  for  local 

O  O 

candidates,  and  to  the  growth,  under  such  administra- 
tion, of  monopoly  in  lands,  mines,  and  other  resources, 
for  which  democrats  promised  relief.  This  party  had 
also  so  prostituted  its  principles  as  to  give  Africans 
the  ballot.  Moreover,  its  dissensions  gave  further 
opportunities  to  its  opponents. 

Throughout  this  strife  of  parties  is  exhibited,  with 
rare  exceptions,  a  self-control  and  subordination  to 
the  will  of  the  majority  which  is  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  proceedings  of  the  Spanish- Americans.  The 
latter  are  deficient  in  those  qualities,  as  well  as  in  the 
practical  sense  so  necessary  to  government  and  to  ma- 
terial advancement.  Independence  was  achieved  be- 
fore they  were  fitted  for  its  enjoyment.  Hence,  also, 
their  ready  subordination  to  the  beneficent  military 
sway,  which  has  been  lately  imposed. 

The  Mexicans  had  long  been  used  to  military  rule. 
Montezuma's  empire  was  upheld  by  armies,  and  cross 
and  sword  marched  side  by  side  in  Spanish  conquest, 
while  missionaries  insisted  upon  armed  escorts  for 
themselves,  and  for  enforcing  obedience  among  neo- 
phytes. Armies  also  held  sway  during  the  half  cen- 
tury of  republican  turmoil,  installing  one  leader  after 
another  in  rapid  succession.  Hence  the  present  semi- 
military  control  is  by  no  means  to  be  wondered  at. 
The  system,  though  it  cannot  properly  be  called  re- 
publican, is  indeed  finding  increased  favor,  as  the 
happy  results  of  enforced  peace  and  order  are  becom- 
ing apparent,  and  as  the  spread  of  education  teaches 
the  value  of  self-control.  This  influence  is  strength- 
ened by  the  progressive  measures  of  the  government, 
notably  by  the  construction  of  telegraphs  and  rail- 
ways, which  facilitate  the  prompt  suppression  of  re- 


PARTY  STRIFE.  17 

volts.  In  the  United  States  all  this  tends  to  dimmish 
the  need  for  military  outposts,  by  enabling  the  local 
police  or  militia  to  quell  disorder.  In  other  words, 
the  United  States  has  in  its  population  material  for 
a  first-class  republic,  however  bad  the  use  that  is  made 
of  it,  while  Mexico  has  not. 

Military  rule  has  indeed  been  at  times  established 
by  the  United  States,  as  after  the  conquest  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  in  Alaska,  which  waited  for  nearly  two 
decades  before  obtaining  even  the  phantom  of  a  civil 
government,  while  the  mere  presence  of  the  soldiery 
during  a  portion  of  this  period  was  the  cause  of  many 
a  disgraceful  riot.  Utah  was  also  threatened  with 
bayonet  rule,  but  exhibited  so  determined  an  opposition 
as  to  oblige  the  authorities  to  adopt  other  measures. 
The  efforts  afterward  made  to  suppress  polygamy 
were  under  judicial  power  alone. 

The  militia  system  was  fairly  efficient  on  this  coast 
during  its  many  Indian  -troubles,  although  reliance 
was  chiefly  placed  in  improvised  volunteer  corps.  In 
Utah  nearly  all  the  able-bodied  men  were  enrolled  in 
the  so-called  Nauvoo  legion,  until  the  federal  author- 
ities suggested  the  disbanding  of  so  formidable  an 
element  among  a  disaffected  people.  In  Spanish- 
America  the  militia  system  tends  toward  civil  war, 
and  is  not,  therefore,  favored  by  the  central  govern- 
ment. In  most  directions  it  is  degenerating  into  a 
political  machine  and  parade  body,  the  latter  display- 
ing an  absence  of  proper  incentives,  and  the  former 
being  merely  used  for  party  purposes.  In  Wyoming 
the  organization  of  a  militia  has  been  neglected,  chiefly 
through  the  presence  of  troops,  which  rendered  it  un- 
necessary, the  citizens  appearing  glad  to  escape  the 
tax. 

The  ready  and  practical  organization  of  government 
by  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  been  thoroughly  illustrated 
in  the  early  history  of  this  coast.  At  the  first  gath- 
ering of  miners  at  a  camp,  or  of  settlers  round  a  pros- 
pective village,  rules  were  adopted  and  rulership 
c.  B.— ii.  2 


18  REVOLUTIONISTS. 

inaugurated,  with  perhaps  a  recorder  or  a  justice  of 
the  peace,  usually  under  the  title  of  alcalde.  Weighty 
questions  were  left  to  a  meeting,  at  which  a  speaker 
from  a  stump  or  barrel  stated  the  case,  and  called  for 
approval  or  rejection  by  show  of  hands  or  ayes  and 
noes. 

The  lack  of  prisons  and  of  proper  officials  in  such 
incipient  communities  rendered  necessary  the  prompt 
measures  enforced  by  vigilance  committees,  in  order 
to  protect  society  from  its  baser  elements.  With 
these  tribunals  common  sense  and  equity  prevailed 
over  technicalities,  and  justice  was  as  a  rule  secured, 
marred  only  on  rare  occasions  by  mistakes — but  not 
more  so  than  in  ordinary  courts  of  law — under  the 
excitement  which  attended  many  of  the  popular  up- 
risings against  the  criminal  classes.  The  efficacy  of 
this  terror-inspiring  system  led  to  its  use  in  the  towns 
and  cities,  where  the  administration  of  justice  and  of 
affairs  in  general  had  relaxed  under  a  corruption  which 
clogged  political  as  well  as  judicial  machinery,  and 
where  tricky  politicians  called  upon  ballot-stuffers  to 
assist  them  in  seizing  the  reins  of  government  from  a 
people  preoccupied  with  money -making.  Such  popu- 
lar tribunals  were  common  throughout  the  mining 
states,  save  in  British  Columbia,  where  an  early  es- 
tablished administration  set  itself  against  any  meddling 
with  its  affairs,  and,  indeed,  by  its  firm  and  prompt 
measures  made  interference  unnecessary. 

Crime  found  additional  incentive  on  this  coast  in 
the  roaming  habits,  the  gambling  mania,  the  drinking, 
the  revelry  prevailing  among  a  venturesome  and  reck- 
less community,  unchecked  by  family  restraint.  In 
Mexico  lawlessness  found  further  opportunity  in  the 
disorders  of  the  civil  war  and  the  general  improvi- 
dence of  the  masses. 

In  Texas  the  race  conflicts  of  the  border,  and  long- 
disputed  or  unprotected  boundaries,  fostered  a  ma- 
rauding spirit,  the  habit  of  carrying  weapons  gave 
rise  to  bloodshed  among  the  reckless  and  dissipated. 


VIGILANCE  COMMITTEES.  19 

The  conveyance  of  treasures  from  the  mining  districts 
afforded  facilities  for  highway  robbery,  and  compelled 
express  companies  frequently  to  appoint  armed  mes- 
sengers for  the  stages.  The  live-stock  interests  in 

o  O 

Montana,  Wyoming,  and  Colorado  gave  rise  to  bands 
of  cattle  and  horse-thieves,  even  better  organized  than 
the  Mexican  banditti,  with  agencies  in  different  parts. 
For  self-protection  the  stock-raisers  formed  a  corps  of 
detectives  and  guards,  who  soon  imposed  a  check  on 
depredations. 

The  international  wars  of  Europe,  with  the  at- 
tendant raids  on  the  Spanish  colonies,  led  to  sea-rov- 
ing and  general  robbery  on  the  ocean  highways,  re- 
sulting in  the  class  called  buccaneers,  so  long  the  ter- 
ror of  the  Spanish  main.  They  found  a  congenial 
refuge  in  the  disputed  borders  of  Texas,  and  after  a 
chrysalis  season  burst  forth  anew  as  filibusters,  to 
steal  the  lands  of  others  under  the  dignified  terms  of 
conquest  »and  liberation.  The  unsettled  conditions 
and  reckless  life  of  the  flush  times,  and  the  revived 
stories  of  gilded  border  countries  in  Mexico,  furnished 
fresh  motives  for  such  undertakings,  which  were  en- 
couraged, moreover,  by  the  disorderly  state  of  affairs 
in  Spanish- America,  and  the  ease  with  which  small 
Anglo-Saxon  and  French  armies  had  held  the  table- 
land of  Andhuac.  The  worst  phase  of  these  invasions 
was  the  secret  support  tendered  to  some  of  them  by 
officials  at  Washington,  and  by  party  leaders.  In 
the  occupation  of  Oregen  a  modified  phase  of  filibus- 
tering appeared,  and  in  California  the  Bear-flag  party 
sought  to  imitate  Texas. 

Many  an  eye  has  been  fixed  with  similar  aspirations 
on  British  Columbia,  as  the  only  section  of  North 
America  now  under  control  of  a  foreign  power.  Yet 
there  is  no  opportunity  for  adventurers  in  that  quar- 
ter. The  influence  of  the  great  republic  has  united 
with  the  generous  policy  of  the  mother  country  in  es- 
tablishing there  a  freedom  nearly  equal  to  that  which 


20         GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

is  enjoyed  in  the  United  States,  with  reduced  taxation, 
cheap  lands,  and  virtual  autonomy  of  government.  The 
emulation  inspired  by  close  intercourse  has  developed 
an  enterprise  and  prosperity  far  above  the  average  of 
the  dominion.  The  provincial  confederacy  is  a  great 
stride  toward  independence,  which,  if  desired,  could 
be  readily  conceded,  despite  the  value  of  the  region, 
with  its  transcontinental  railway  as  a  bond  between 
England  and  her  Asiatic  and  Australian  possessions. 
California  furnishes  the  United  States  with  a  similar 
avenue  for  Pacific  trade,  facilitated  by  steamship  lines 
and  railways. 

In  the  evolution  of  government  in  the  mining  re- 
gions we  meet  with  many  peculiarities1.  In  Colorado 
a  so-called  claim  club  followed  upon  the  heels  of  min- 
ing regulations,  for  recording  land-holdings,  and  pro- 
moting settlement  of  disputes  by  arbitration.  The 
settlers  of  Carson  valley  sought  territorial  autonomy, 
although  numbering  barely  a  hundred  inhabitants; 
with  few  permanent  settlers.  Wyoming  petitioned 
for  similar  privileges  as  soon  as  her  first  settlements 
were  founded.  Idaho  emerged  as  a  territory  carved 
out  of  Washington  within  a  year  and  a  half  from  the 
outset  of  her  career.  Montana  followed  within  a  still 
briefer  period. 

A  similar  eagerness  was  displayed  in  the  agitation 
for  statehood.  Utah  has  been  striving  for  this  privi- 
lege since  1849;  Colorado  petitioned  for  it  on  the 
strength  of  the  first  great  influx  of  population,  while 
others  were  still  endeavoring  to  obtain  for  her  a  terri- 
torial organization.  For  this  there  was  a  precedent 
in  the  promotion  of  California  from  a  conquered  prov- 
ince to  a  state,  without  even  the  usual  incubation 
period.  Yet  she  had  enjoyed  the  dignity  of  inde- 
pendent statehood  in  1836  on  the  strength  of  an 
ephemeral  revolution.  The  conditions  as  to  number 
of  inhabitants  are  about  equal  for  all  the  republics  on 
the  northern  continent,  yet  in  each  one  congress  has 


PETITION   FOR  STATEHOOD.  21 

been  capricious  in  granting  admission  into  the  sister- 
hood. Politicians  and  parties  have  combined  to  ex- 
clude many  a  qualified  territory,  or  to  admit  others  in 
advance  of  time.  Thus  Nevada  was  introduced  by 
triumphant  republicans  during  the  war,  on  grounds 
so  unstable  that  a  large  proportion  of  her  inhabitants 
was  disposed,  not  many  years  later,  to  petition  for 
annexation  to  California  or  for  a  return  to  territorial 
simplicity.  There  may  be  strong  reasons  for  recon- 
sidering the  request  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  but 
to  ignore  the  claims  of  Washington  and  Dakota  is 
inexcusable. 

During  the  conquest  period  governors  were  auto- 
crats often  of  the  fiercest  kind,  as  was  Nuflo  de  Guz- 
man, who  has  been  termed  the  northern  Pizarro. 
Later,  however,  their  power  in  Spanish  America  was 
circumscribed,  and  subject  to  audiencia  supervision. 
In  the  United  States  even  the  military  or  territorial 
governors  have  seldom  been  guilty  of  oppression,  but 
the  legislatures  have  been  in  many  instances  corrupt, 
passing  disgraceful  acts  for  individual  benefit  or 
monopolies,  and  selling  their  votes  to  the  highest  bid- 
der. Many  of  the  senators  from  Colorado  and  Ne- 
vada, for  instance,  are  known  to  have  entered  the 
chambers  of  congress  with  the  golden  key.  In  Idaho 
a  certain  body  of  law-makers  has  been  handed  down 
to  history  as  the  guerrilla  legislature.  Many  city 
councils  have  been  guilty  of  similar  offenses,  those  of 
San  Francisco  squandering  her  once  enormous  landed 
wealth,  and  later  sinking  in  the  pockets  of  politicians 
half  the  money  paid  as  taxes  by  the  people.  Oregon, 
during  her  informal  existence,  took  the  precaution  of 
electing  an  executive  committee  instead  of  one  gov- 
ernor. 

The  effect 'of  such  corruption  is  felt  for  generations, 
partly  in  the  dissipation  of  school-lands  and  other  pub- 
lic possessions,  and  also  in  the  accumulation  of  debts. 
The  fault  lies  not  alone  in  the  unwillingness  of  citi- 


22          GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

zens  to  spare  a  few  hours  from  their  business  in  order 
to  thwart  the  machinations  of  unscrupulous  dema- 
gogues, but  also  in  the  heedlessness  with  which,  in 
former  years,  they  voted  to  increase  the  public  bur- 
dens. Most  of  the  states  have  inserted  in  their  con- 
stitutions prudent  debt  limitations.  Others  have  ex- 
hibited commendable  zeal  in  casting  off  the  load, 
Montana  refunding  half  a  million  within  a  few  years. 
Colorado  forbade  state,  county,  or  city  from  pledging 
their  credit,  and  set  an  admirable  example  in  man- 
aging its  school  trust  so  as  to  augment  its  value  by 
many  millions.  The  tax-levy  has,  moreover,  been 
limited  to  moderate  rates.  In  Utah  it  was  for  a  long 
period  only  six  mills  on  the  dollar  for  territorial  and 
school  purposes,  and  the  same  amount  for  counties. 
Nevada  merged  her  reduced  debt  in  the  school  funds 

O 

to  the  mutual  advantage  of  state  and  schools.  The 
mismanagement  of  finances  in  Mexico,  intensified  by 
wide-spread  smuggling,  and  by  frequent  local  revolu- 
tions, thus  defrauding  or  raiding  the  custom-house, 
brought  about  foreign  intervention,  further  involving 
the  country, 

A  source  of  corruption  exists  among  the  electors 
in  the  form  of  what  is  commonly  termed  bossism, 
which  prevails  especially  in  the  towns.  The  shrewd 
politicians,  who  avail  themselves  of  pecuniary  and  lo- 
cal interests,  religious  sentiment,  national  sympathies 
among  foreigners,  and  the  like,  to  increase  their  fol- 
lowing, undoubtedly  use  the  collective  vote  placed  at 
their  disposal  less  for  the  real  benefit  of  their  constit- 
uents than  for  political  schemes,  and  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  certain  individuals.  Small  as  the  shares 
become  when  distributed,  the  spoils  of  office  form  an 
irresistible  temptation  to  probably  one  half  the  town 
voters  to  misuse  the  political  trust  committed  to 
them. 

The  labor  party  in  the  United  States  has  proclaimed 
it  their  chief  political  object  to  reform  these  abuses, 


BOSSISM.  23 

although  its  adherents  furnish  the  tools  and  material 
for  them.  Their  power  manifested  itself  after  the 
war  in  different  states  by  the  sudden  revival  of  democ- 
racy, which  gained  them  over  by  promises.  In  Cali- 
fornia they  enforced  the  adoption  of  anew  constitution, 
aiming  to  subject  capital  to  an  undue  share  of  taxation. 
Unfortunately  for  themselves,  they  are  drifting  into 
partisan  currents,  away  from  their  professed  aim,  and 
seeking  to  form  monopolies  of  their  own  class.  The 
very  appellation  of  their  leading  body,  Knights  of 
Labor,  is  an  ironic  affectation  in  a  republic,  although 
not  out  of  accord  with  their  peculiar  fondness  for 
titles,  especially  of  a  military  stamp.  This  tendency 
is  more  pardonable  among  Mexicans,  with  their  taste 
for  glitter  and  superficiality,  nurtured  under  a  regime 
so  pompous  as  was  the  Spanish,  and  though  the 
crown  was  at  first  chary  of  bestowing  titles,  a  number 
of  petty  personages,  some  through  wealth  alone,  at- 
tained to  the  marquisate  first  granted  to  Cortes. 

Bossism  is  one  of  the  main  props  of  the  money 
power  in  politics,  which  asserts  itself  on  this  coast  in 
so  objectionable  a  degree.  Daily  do  we  behold  the 
purchase  and  sale  of  citizens'  ballots,  judicial  decisions, 
legislative  votes  for  the  senatorship,  or  special  acts  in 
favor  of  monopolists,  without  prospect  of  allaying  the 
evil,  save  through  the  threat  of  exposure  by  a  not  too 
pure  newspaper  press.  For  this  is  too  often  influenced 
by  the  same  potent  factors,  or  by  party  zeal,  or  by 
the  base  passion  of  jealousy.  The  inculcation  of 
higher  principles  in  the  rising  generation  can  alone 
reach  the  root  of  the  evil. 

Herein  lies  an  argument  for  the  extension  of  the 
right  of  voting  to  the  female  population,  which  pre- 
vailed in  Wyoming,  and  to  some  extent  in  other  sec- 
tions. The  influence  and  tact  which  mould  the  family 
would  undoubtedly  be  of  benefit  in  many  public  insti- 
tutions. The  conservatism  of  woman  would  serve  as 
a  balance-wheel  to  the  more  radical  measures  and  in- 


24        GOVERNMENT— INCIPIENCY  AND  GENERAL  VIEW. 

novations  of  the  men.  In  Colorado  the  constitution 
approved  of  female  voting,  but  left  it  to  the  males  to 
grant  it,  which  they  refrained  from  doing.  In  Wyo- 
ming the  privilege  was  freely  extended,  and  women 
were  elected  as  justices  of  the  peace,  and  summoned 
as  jurors.  Opposition  appeared,  however,  and  the 
sex  was  gradually  restricted  in  office-holding  to  school 
superintendencies  and  similar  positions,  to  which 
females  are  eligible  in  some  other  states, 


CHAPTER  II. 

LIFE  OF  LORENZO  SAWYER. 

THE  CALIFORNIA  JUDICIARY  — ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE  — A  GOLDEN 
WEDDING  —  EARLY  CAREER  —  STUDY  OP  THE  LAW  —  OVERLAND 
JOURNEY — HISTORIC  LAW-BOOKS  — AT  NEVADA  CITY  —  IN  SAN  FRAN- 
CISCO DISTRICT  COURT  JUDGE  —  CHIEF  JUSTICE  —  CIRCUIT  COURT 
JUDGE — PROFESSIONAL  VIEWS  AND  DECISIONS — GRAND  LODGE  ORA- 
TION_THE  STANFORD  UNIVERSITY  — THE  CENTRAL  PACDJIC — CAREER 
AND  CHARACTER. 

THE  real  strength  of  a  nation,  it  has  been  well 
remarked,  consists  less  in  the  efficiency  of  her  armies, 
or  in  the  honesty  and  ability  of  her  law-givers,  than 
in  the  character  of  her  judiciary.  Certain  it  is  that 
the  advantages  of  a  republican  government  and 
of  liberal  institutions  are  but  imperfectly  enjoyed 
when  there  does  not  also  exist  a  wholesome  respect 
not  only  for  the  majesty  of  the  law,  but  for  the  min- 
isters of  the  law.  In  all  the  economy  of  civilization 
there  is  perhaps  no  more  potent  agency  than  a  pure, 
impartial,  and  intelligent  administration  of  justice. 
Nowhere  does  the  page  of  human  history  contain 
more  instructive  lessons  than  that  whereon  have 
been  written  and  expounded  the  ethics  of  the 
law.  From  such  material  it  is  that  national  great- 
ness is  fabricated,  by  such  influences  that  it  is  pre- 
served. 

And  what  shall  be  said  as  to  our  California  judi- 
ciary, whose  existence,  compared  with  that  of  older 
communities,  is  but  of  yesterday?  If  in  its  earlier 
history  there  were  men  who  gave  cause  for  reproach, 
men  whose  lax  and  corrupt  administration  compelled 

(25) 


26  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  people  to  arise  in  their  majesty,  and  execute  with 
their  own  hands  the  justice  which  its  ministers  denied, 
all  this  has  long  since  passed  away.  In  their  place 
are  men  whose  integrity  has  never  been  doubted, 
whose  ability  has  never  been  questioned,  and  on 
whose  decisions  the  public  are  content  to  rely.  If 
we  have  not  as  yet  among  us  such  judicial  luminaries 
as  were  Coke  and  Mansfield  in  England,  as  were 
Marshall  and  Story  in  the  eastern  states,  there  are 
not  a  few  whose  pure  and  able  interpretation  of  the 
law,  whose  comprehensive  grasp  of  its  principles, 
have  gained  for  them  a  national,  if  not  a  world-wide, 
reputation.  Such  a  man  is  Lorenzo  Sawyer,  formerly 
chief  justice  of  California,  and  for  many  years  United 
States  circuit  judge. 

From  the  shire  of  Lincoln,  England,  where  for 
years  was  the  ancestral  home  of  the  Sawyers, 
Thomas  and  his  two  brothers  were  the  first  of  the 
name  to  migrate  to  the  western  world.  About  six- 
teen years  after  the  Mayflower  cast  anchor  in  Ply- 
mouth harbor,  their  names  were  enrolled  among  the 
first  colonists  of  Rowley,  Massachusetts,  whence,  in 
1647,  Thomas  removed  to  Lancaster,  in  the  western 
portion  of  the  colony.  Here  he  was  one  of  a  party 
of  five  by  whom  the  settlement  was  founded,  and  with 
John  Prescott  and  Ralph  Houghton,  also  among  its 
pioneers,  was  appointed  a  few  years  later  one  of  the 
"prudential  men"  to  whom  all  local  authority  was 
intrusted.  Himself  a  man  of  note,  John  Prescott  was 
the  ancestor  of  some  of  the  most  noted  men  in  New 
England  annals,  among  them  being  Colonel  Prescott, 
who  commanded  at  Bunker  hill,  and  William  Pres- 
cott, and  William  H.  Prescott  the  historian  of  Mexico 
and  Peru.  He  was  also  the  ancestor  of  the  present 
United  States  senators,  Philetus  Sawyer,  George  F. 
Hoar,  and  William  M.  Evarts;  and  of  the  former 
United  States  senator  and  attorney-general,  E.  Rock- 
wood  Hoar.  No  less  distinguished  were  the  descend- 
ants of  his  son-in-law,  Thomas  Sawyer,  many  of  whom 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  27 

played  a  leading  part  in  the  war  of  independence,  and 
the  war  of  1812,  no  less  than  nineteen  of  the  Lancas- 
trian Sawyers  serving  in  the  former,  and  it  need  not 
be  said  in  the  ranks  of  the  patriots. 

In  1636,  when  Thomas  Sawyer  first  set  foot  on  the 
shores  of  Massachusetts,  Charles  I.  was  still  on  the 
throne,  Cromwell  had  but  just  entered  upon  his 
career,  and  England  was  on  the  eve  of  the  great  inter- 
national conflict  which  ended  with  Naseby  and  the 
tragedy  of  Whitehall.  Since  that  date  six  genera- 
tions of  the  Sawyer  family  have  been  gathered  to  their 
rest,  and  though  much  of  their  history  has  been  lost, 
that  which  remains  will  prove  an  invaluable  legacy 
to  their  descendants,  not  only  as  a  record  of  ances- 
tral virtues,  but  as  an  incentive  to  generations  yet 
to  be. 

Of  the  eleven  children  of  Thomas  Sawyer,  whose 
decease  occurred  at  Lancaster,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
eight,  his  eldest  son,  also  named  Thomas,  was  car- 
ried captive  by  the  Indians  to  Canada,  and  there  with 
his  son  Elias,  who  shared  his  captivity,  built  the  first 
sawmill  as  the  price  of  his  liberation  by  the  governor. 
Of  the  two  sons  of  Elias  Sawyer,  the  younger,  named 
Elisha,  was  born  at  Lancaster  in  1720,  and  fifty  years 
later  ended  his  days  at  Sterling,  Massachusetts,  where 
certain  lands  and  tenements,  then  for  the  first  time 
occupied  by  the  family,  had  been  left  to  him  as  a  herit- 
age from  his  grandfather.  Among  his  twelve  children 
was  one  named  Thomas,  the  child  of  his  second  wife, 
and  a  native  of  Sterling,  whence  about  1789  he 
removed  to  Plymouth,  Vermont.  At  Sterling  were 
born  to  him  four  sons  and  two  daughters,  and  at  Ply- 
mouth four  sons  and  one  daughter,  among  the  latter 
being  Jesse,  the  father  of  Lorenzo  Sawyer.  Numer- 
ous, though  widely  dispersed  are  his  descendants  of 
the  second  and  third  generations,  and  still  more  num- 
erous and  widely  scattered  are  other  branches  of  the 
family.  Not  a  few  of  its  members  are  numbered 
among  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  Boston,  where 


28  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

in  1851  a  society  was  formed  with  Frederick  W. 
Sawyer  as  president,  to  collect  such  records  as 
remained  of  this  ancient  and  time-honored  race. 

From  Plymouth,   Vermont,    Thomas  Sawyer,  the 
grandfather  of  Lorenzo,  removed  to  what  was   then 
known  as  the  Black  river  country,  in  northern  New 
York,    the    journey    occupying    seventeen    days,   or 
thrice  the  time  that  is  at  present  required  for  a  trip 
across   the    continent.     Here   on   a  Saturday  after- 
noon, in  the  opening  year  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
he  reached  the  present  sight  of  Watertown,  in  Jeffer- 
son county,  and  selected  as   his  homestead  a  piece  of 
forest  land.      On  the  Sabbath  he  built  for  himself  a 
cabin,  in  which,  or  in  the  more  commodious  struct- 
ure that  took  its  place,  he  and  some  of  his  descend- 
ants    have    ever    since     resided.       The    widow    of 
Laurentius,  his  grandson,  and  her  two  sons  were  its 
occupants  in  April  1890,  when  Lorenzo  last  visited 
it.   Near  by  in  the  now  city  of  Watertown  stands  the 
edifice  of  the  first   presbyterian  church,  organized  in 
1801  by  Thomas  Sawyer  and  others,  and  of  which  the 
former  was  a  deacon,  though  long  before  this  date  his 
house,    wherever  located,    was  always   open  for  the 
assembling    of  the  devout.      His  death  occurred  in 
1825,  and  his  wife,  nee  Susanna  Wilder,  survived   him 
by  nearly  a  score  of  years,  outliving  her   ninety-first 
birthday.    She  was  a  woman  of  remarkable  energy  and 
force  of  character,  supplying  the  place  of  a  physician, 
not  only  in  Watertown  but  in  several  adjoining  settle- 
ments.  To  all  her  neighbors  she  was  endeared  by  her 
kindness  of  heart,  and  with  her  grandchildren  was  an 
especial  favorite.     On  parting  with  them,  as  one  after 
another  went  forth  to  make  his  way  in  the  world,  her 
advice  was :  "  Be  a  friend  to  everyone,  and  you  will 
never  want  a  friend  yourself." 

Plymouth,  Vermont,  was,  as  I  have  said,  the  birth- 
place of  Jesse  Sawyer,  the  father  of  Lorenzo,  and  the 
day  the  24th  of  May  1796.  Removing  with  the  fam- 
ily to  Watertown  when  four  years  of  age,  after  receiv- 


LORENZO   SAWYER.  29 

ing  such  education  as  the  district  schools  afforded,  he 
began  his  career  as  a  farmer,  which  calling  he  followed 
throughout  his  lifetime,  though  with  many  changes 
of  location.  Soon  after  attaining  to  man's  estate  we 
find  him  settled  at  Huntingtonville,  near  which,  at 
the  town  of  La  Kay,  named  after  a  French  count  who 
purchased  there  a  large  estate,  Lorenzo,  the  oldest  of 
his  six  children,  wa.s  born  on  the  23d  of  May  1820. 
In  1835  he  exchanged  his  farm  in  that  locality  for 
one  of  six  hundred  acres  in  northern  Pennsylvania, 
and  as  most  of  it  was  timber  land  erected  there 
a  sawmill.  Thence  a  few  years  afterward  he  removed 
to  Ohio,  and  still  later  to  Illinois.  In  his  vocation 
he  was  fairly  successful,  as  could  not  fail  to  be  the 
case  with  a  man  of  his  strong  intelligence  and  force 
of  character.  Together  with  his  wife,  nee  Elizabeth 
Goodell,  a  cousin  of  the  celebrated  missionary, 
William  Goodell,  he  had  joined  the  presbyterian 
church,  was  a  sincere  and  earnest  Christian,  and  dur- 
ing the  religious  revivals  in  northern  New  York, 
beginning  in  1822,  extended  to  its  promoters  his  sym- 
pathy and  aid.  But  perhaps  the  best  description  that 
can  be  given  of  the  career  of  Mr  and  Mrs  Jesse 
Sawyer  is  contained  in  the  following  extracts  from  the 
address  of  their  son,  Joel  Swain,  at  the  celebration 
of  their  golden  wedding  at  Belvidere,  Illinois,  on 
the  llth  of  February  1869  : 

"  You  accepted  the  conditions  of  a  laborious  life, 
encountered  its  difficulties,  endured  its  hardships,  and 
sustained  its  burdens  with  the  most  exemplary  cour- 
age and  fortitude,  never  yielding  to  the  allurements 
of  ease  or  the  gratification  of  selfish  enjoyments. 
You  wrestled  with  stern  nature,  and  sometimes  with 
adverse  fortune,  in  the  forests  of  New  England,  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio,  and  the  prairies  of 
Illinois  and  Minnesota  bloom  with  greater  loveliness 
through  your  care. 

"  You  have  not  filled  large  spaces  in  the  public 
eye,  but  your  quiet,  unobtrusive  virtues  have  shed  a 


30  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

brilliant  lustre  on  your  private  life.  You  have  not 
sought  the  applause  or  honors  of  the  world,  but  you 
have  enjoyed  the  affection  and  confidence  of  your 
neighbors  and  endeared  yourselves  to  all  those  need- 
ing your  care,  sympathy  or  consolation.  You  have 
not  labored  mainly  for  the  meat  that  perisheth,  but 
have  sought  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  right- 
eousness, with  a  sublime  confidence  that  all  other 
things  shall  be  added,  which  are  really  needful.  You 
have  not  sought  eagerly  nor  secured  largely  what  the 
world  is  pleased  to  term  success,  but  who  shall  say 
what  constitutes  success  in  the  vocabulary  of  angels? 
Whether  you  would  to-day  exchange  the  success 
attained  by  yourselves  for  all  the  glittering  store  of 
the  world's  idols,  I  need  not  ask. 

"To  the  principles  of  morality,  virtue,  and  gospel 
truth  early  instilled  into  their  minds,  enforced  by 
your  example,  do  your  children  owe  whatever  of 
good  may  appear  in  their  characters,  whatever  of 
success  they  may  attain  in  life,  whatever  of  public  or 
private  consideration  and  esteem  they  may  inspire, 
and  as  a  fitting  return  for  your  care,  your  integrity, 
and  the  other  Christian  graces  illustrated  by  your 
daily  lives,  you  now  realize  the  assurance  of  the 
sacred  proverbalist,  that  your  children  shall  arise,  as 
we  do  this  day,  and  pronounce  you  blessed." 

Not  long  afterward  Jesse  Sawyer  passed  away, 
followed  later  by  his  wife  who,  at  the  age  of  ninety- 
two,  was  peacefully  gathered  to  her  rest,  in  the 
home  where,  sixteen  years  before,  her  golden  wedding 
had  been  celebrated. 

To  the  training  received  from  such  parents,  no  less 
than  to  his  own  efforts,  to  the  training,  rather,  which 
made  him  capable  of  such  efforts,  and  gave  them 
direction,  Lorenzo  Sawyer  owes  the  exalted  position 
which  he  has  since  attained. 

Reared  as  he  was  in  a  home  where  was  the  very 
dwelling-place  of  honor  and  simplicity,  where  as  his 
brother  remarked  the  principles  of  morality,  virtue, 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  31 

and  truth  were  early  instilled,  and  enforced  by 
example,  it  were  hardly  to  be  expected  that  his  life 
should  be  other  than  it  is,  one  of  singular  purity  and 
usefulness,  presenting  a  career  on  which  no  breath  of 
reproach  has  ever  rested. 

Like  other  farmers'  sons,  Lorenzo  began  early  the 
serious  business  of  life,,  At  an  age  when  most  boys 
are  midway  in  their  education,  he  had  learned  to  do 
everything  that  is  to  be  done  in  the  working 
of  a  farm.  He  could  plow  and  sow;  he  could  look 
after  cattle;  he  could  cut  logs  and  raft  them;  he  could 
mow  hay  and  reap  grain,  and  to  this  day  he  bears  on 
his  wrist  the  scar  of  a  wound  received  while  whetting 
a  scythe.  Rising  before  day  in  the  freezing  cold  he 
tended  the  livestock,  and  worked  in  the  barn  until 
the  hour  of  breakfast  and  school,  returning  toward 
nightfall  to  complete  his  task.  At  ten  he  could  drive 
an  ox-team  to  the  river  bank,  discharging  into  the 
stream  a  wagon-load  of  logs,  and  this  he  did  a  hun- 
dred times  amid  the  pine  forests  of  this  Black  river 
country,  then  on  the  verge  of  the  wilderness  primeval. 
In  truth  it  was  a  hard  life  he  led  on  this  northern 
frontier,  with  its  harsh  and  forbidding  climate,  where 
four  months  of  uninterrupted  sleighing  were  no 
uncommon  occurrence  But  thus  was  added  to  the 
strong  constitution  inherited  from  his  parents  the 
robur  et  aes  triplex  which  only  hard  toil  arid  exposure 
can  give;  thus  were  his  sinews  toughened,  his  brawn 
and  muscles  developed;  to  this  experience  it  is  due 
that  now  at  the  age  of  three-score  and  ten  Mr 
Sawyer's  powers  of  mind  and  body  show  but  slight 
traces  of  decay. 

From  hauling  timber  Lorenzo  turned  his  attention 
to  selling  it,  and  for  this  he  had  a  good  opportunity 
when  the  family  removed  to  their  Pennsylvania 
farm,  on  which  were  several  hundred  acres  of  choicest 
timber.  At  eighteen  we  find  him  steering  down  the 
Susquehanna  river  a  raft  of  lumber  cut  at  his  father's 
sawmill,  and  this  he  disposed  of  below  the  town  of 


32  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

Harrisburg,  a  distance  of  more  than  200  miles. 
During  the  voyage  he  read  for  the  first  time  Camp- 
bell's Gertrude  of  Wyoming,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  he 
followed  with  the  keenest  relish  the  story  of  this 
beautiful  epic,  for  he  was  now  at  the  romantic  era  of 
life,  and  to  him  the  history  of  Wyoming  and  the 
Wyoming  massacre  were  ever  of  absorbing  interest. 

Let  us  picture  to  ourselves  the  future  jurist  afloat 
on  his  lumber  raft  on  the  waters  of  the  Susque- 
hannah.  He  is  attired  in  his  work-day  clothes,  his 
right  hand  on  the  long  oar  which  serves  as  rudder, 
and  in  the  left  his  book,  at  which  now  and  then,  if 
the  course  is  clear,  he  casts  a  hurried  glance.  In  the 
centre  of  the  raft  is  the  cooking  galley,  where  his 
dinner  of  pork  and  beans  is  boiling,  and  adjoining  it 
is  the  tiny  cabin,  where  far  into  the  night  he  pores 
over  his  favorite  volume.  Thus  the  hours  glide  past, 
smoothly  as  the  current  of  the  noble  river  that  bears 
on  its  bosom  his  unwieldy  craft.  But  presently  he 
approaches  a  critical  point.  It  is  the  Shemokim  dam 
through  the  chute  of  which  the  stream  rushes  like 
a  mill-race.  At  the  lower  end  a  rock  had  been 
deposited  by  the  floods,  the  terror  of  raftsmen,  who 
by  a  sudden  jerk  of  the  oar  were  often  thrown  head- 
long into  the  seething  waters.  No  more  meditation 
now;  but  making  fast  to  the  river  bank,  he  steps  on 
the  wall  of  the  chute  and  quietly  watches  his  turn. 
It  is  not  a  reassuring  sight,  for  of  the  score  of  rafts 
that  are  borne  through  this  Chary bdis  all  but  one 
suffer  partial  shipwreck.  But  now  his  time  has  come. 
Profiting  by  what  he  has  seen,  without  the  quiver  of 
a  muscle  he  grasps  the  oar  and  pushes  out  into  the 
stream.  The  current  is  furious,  with  a  hell  of  water 
on  either  side  of  him,  and  when  about  midway  in  the 
passage  his  raft  j  ust  grazes  the  dreaded  rock  and  for 
an  instant  his  heart  rises  into  his  throat.  But  it  is 
only  a  scratch.  Another  moment  and  he  is  out  of 
danger  and  in  due  time,  his  cargo  disposed  of,  he  is 
on  his  way  home  with  a  goodly  sum  for  safety  sewed 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  33 

into   his    shirt,  wherewith    to    replenish    the    family 
exchequer- 

Except  for  such  rudiments  of  education  as  could 
be  acquired  at  the  district  schools,  and  for  a  year  or 
two  of  study  at  the  Black  river  and  other  institutes, 
Mr  Sawyer  was  entirely  self-taught.  From  early 
boyhood  his  evenings  and  most  of  the  few  play  hours 
that  fell  to  his  share  were  devoted  mainly  to  books, 
pitch  pine  and  tallow  candles,  furnished  him  light. 
There  was  no  gas  in  those  days.  At  Rutland,  some 
three  miles  from  his  home  was  a  public  library  of 
well  selected  works,  of  which  he  was  not  slow  to 
avail  himself,  riding  into  town  to  exchange  his  books 
as  soon  as  he  had  mastered  their  contents.  Mathe- 
matics and  the  physical  sciences  were  his  favorite 
subjects,  and  like  others  who  have  attained  to 
eminence  in  his  profession,  he  was  a  natural  mathe- 
matician. The  knowledge  which  he  acquired  at 
school,  or  from  private  study,  he  made  more 
thoroughly  his  own  by  teaching,  the  best  of  all 
means  of  gaining  a  thorough  mastery  of  a  subject, 
and  of  discovering  one's  own  deficiencies.  Among 
other  places  where  his  services  were  in  demand 
was  the  town  of  Southport,  in  New  York  state, 
where  the  population  was  one  of  more  than  average 
intelligence,  including  several  retired  merchants 
from  New  York  city,  whose  children  were  placed 
under  his  charge. 

But  it  was  not  as  a  teacher  that  Mr  Sawyer  was 
destined  to  make  his  mark  in  life.  Teaching,  as  he 
had  not  failed  to  observe,  is  but  a  poor  calling,  except 
as  a  stepping-stone  to  something  better.  Had  he 
remained  therein  the  state  of  New  York  would  have 
had  the  advantage  of  an  excellent  teacher,  but  the 
state  of  California  would  have  lost  an  excellent 
judge.  It  was,  however,  partly  by  accident  that  he 
was  led  to  adopt  the  profession  of  the  law.  A  mur- 
der trial  was  in  progress  at  Watertown,  when  entering 


C.  B.— II.     3 


34  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  courtroom  he  listened  with  the  deepest  interest. 
On  the  bench  was  a  judge  of  the  old-fashioned  type, 
grave,  dignified,  and  formal,  but  with  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  law.  For  the  prosecution  and 
defence  were  two  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  day;  and 
as  he  listened  to  the  speeches  on  either  side,  the 
examination  and  cross-examination  of  witnesses,  with 
all  the  legal  sparring  incidental  to  the  case,  his  mind 
was  captivated  and  he  decided  to  become  a  lawyer. 
That  he  should  ever  be  a  judge  he  did  not  then 
imagine,  for  Mr  Sawyer  was  ever  a  modest  man,  and 
as  unassuming  as  modest;  but  such  are  the  men  whom 
office  and  position  seek,  when  called  upon  to  seek  at 
all,  which  is  not  often.  Meanwhile  he  kept  his  inten- 
tion secret,  for  by  the  pious  Xew  England  people, 
among  whom  he  was  reared,  a  lawyer  was  regarded 
as  cousin-o'erman  to  the  father  of  lies. 

O 

At  the  age  of  twenty  Mr  Sawyer  made  his  first 
appearance  in  public  at  the  mineral  springs  at  Rome, 
in  Pennsylvania,  a  summer  resort,  near  which  the 
family  then  resided,  and  formerly  a  portion  of  his 
father's  estate.  It  was  before  one  of  the  Tippecanoe 
and  Tyler  clubs,  of  which  during  that  memorable 
campaign  numbers  were  formed  throughout  the  land. 
With  much  reluctance  he  consented  to  make  a  speech, 
taking  the  side  of  the  whigs,  to  which  party  at  the 
time  he  belonged.  It  was  a  trying  moment  when  the 
young  man  confronted  a  large  audience,  his  speech 
prepared,  except  as  to  the  language,  from  a  careful 
study  of  the  best  orations  delivered  during  the  cam- 
paign. When  he  began  to  speak  a  feeling  of  dizziness 
came  over  him ;  but  he  was  kindly  received,  and  soon 
his  embarrassment  wore  away.  As  he  proceeded  he 
carried  with  him  the  sympathies  of  his  hearers,  for 
he  possessed  in  no  small  degree  the  power  of  personal 
magnetism.  When  about  two-thirds  through  the 
speech  he  had  laid  out,  he  made  a  remark  which 
aroused  their  enthusiasm,  and  was  followed  by  a 
burst  of  applause  long  continued.  At  this  point  he 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  35 

took  his  seat,  although  he  had  much  more  to  say, 
thus  showing  that  he  possessed  one  of  the  most 
able  of  oratorical  gifts,  the  knowledge  when  to  stop. 

But  Mr  Sawyer  had  long  since  discovered  that 
Pennsylvania  was  not  the  place  for  men  who  pos- 
sessed no  other  capital  than  that  which  nature  had 
bestowed  on  them.  He  would  go  west,  to  what 
exact  point  he  had  not  determined,  but  as  far  as  his 
money  would  carry  him.  His  parents  offered  no 
strong  objection,  for  they  had  the  utmost  confidence 
in  their  favorite  son,  though  his  father  promised  him 
a  farm  if  he  would  remain.  So  on  a  summer  morn- 
ing, in  1840,  a  day  or  two  after  his  maiden  speech, 
we  find  him  on  the  stage  for  William  sport,  whence, 
by  way  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Juniatta  canals,  he 
passed  on  to  Pittsburg,  and  by  the  Beaver  canal  and 
river  to  Cleveland  and  Atwater,  the  latter  in  Port- 
age county,  Ohio.  At  Atwater,  in  the  autumn 
and  winter,  he  taught  the  district  school,  meantime 
assisting  one,  Deacon  Horton,  formerly  a  neighbor 
and  fellow  church-member,  with  his  father,  in  the 
building  of  his  house.  "  Lorenzo,"  said  the  deacon, 
thirty  or  forty  years  hence,  when  you  get  to  be  a 
distinguished  man,  if  you  should  happen  to  come 
along  back  into  this  region  you  can  point  to  this 
house  and  say  you  helped  to  build  it."  Nearly 
forty  years  afterward  Mr  Sawyer,  then  United  States 
circuit  judge,  returned,  to  find  his  friend,  at  the 
age  of  ninety-five,  still  living  in  the  neighborhood. 
Though  he  could  not  remember  incidents  which 
had  occurred  but  yesterday,  he  had  not  forgotten 
Lorenzo,  or  the  part  he  played  in  the  building  of  the 
house. 

After  teaching  and  studying  alternately,  as  his 
means  permitted,  he  removed  to  Columbus,  Ohio, 
near  which  his  cousin,  the  Reverend  Leicester  A. 
Sawyer  had  just  established  Central  college  of  Ohio, 
of  which  he  was  president.  Here  he  taught  the 
freshman  class  in  Latin  and  mathematics,  and  of 


36  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

his  pupils  there  were  not  a  few  who,  in  after  life, 
attained  to  eminence.  Among  them  were  his 
younger  brother,  who  became  one  of  the  most  prom- 
inent men  in  southern  Minnesota;  also  George  L. 
Converse,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  democratic 
speakers  and  a  distinguished  member  of  congress; 
John  C.  Lee,  twice  lieutenant-governor  of  Ohio  and 
a  colonel  in  the  civil  war ;  Doctor  Lathrop,  formerly 
rector  of  the  church  of  the  advent  in  San  Fran- 
cisco; and  Doctor  Washburn,  rector  of  the  leading 
episcopal  church  in  Cleveland,  who  lost  his  life  in 
the  railroad  disaster  at  Ashtabula,  also  Thomas 
Carney  afterward  governor  of  Kansas.  Meanwhile 
he  continued  his  studies,  using  to  the  best  advan- 
tage every  spare  moment. 

His  college  education  completed,  Mr  Sawyer 
entered  the  office  of  Gustavus  Swan,  the  leading 
real  estate  lawyer  of  Ohio,  who  presently  withdrew 
from  practice  to  accept  the  presidency  of  the  state 
bank  of  Ohio,  then  under  the  management  of  a  board 
of  control  located  at  Columbus.  To  this  board  he 
was  appointed  assistant  secretary,  and  while  study- 
ing law  held  that  position  for  more  than  a  year,  count- 
ing money  by  the  million,  attending  to  the  corre- 
spondence, and  examining  and  reporting  on  abstracts 
of  title  to  the  land  in  which  the  safety  fund  was 
invested.  Thus  it  was  that  he  gained  his  first  insight 
into  the  business  of  real  estate,  listening  at  times 
to  the  advice  of  the  president,  while  he  arranged 
and  signed  the  bills  of  the  state  bank  and  its  fifty 
branches.  He  completed  his  law  studies  in  the 
office  of  the  late  Justice  Swayne  of  the  United  States 
supreme  court. 

In  the  spring  of  1846  Mr  Sawyer  was  admitted  to 
practise  in  the  supreme  court  of  Ohio,  soon  afterward 
removing  to  Chicago,  and  thence  to  Janesville,  Wis- 
consin, whence  he  went  to  Jefferson  on  the  invitation 
of  Lieutenant-governor  Homes,  and  became  his  part- 
ner upon  equal  terms.  Here  it  was  that  he  won  his 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  37 

first  important  case.  It  was  the  leading  case  of  the 
term,  the  point  at  issue  being  an  injunction  against  a 
dam,  across  Rock  river,  and  Mr  Sawyer  appearing  as 
junior  counsel  for  the  defence,  with  Governor  Holmes 
and  the  late  Chief  Justice  Noggle  for  his  principals. 
The  injunction  was  granted,  whereupon  the  latter  set 
forth  from  town,  their  business,  as  they  thought,  com- 
pleted. On  the  following  Saturday,  when,  as  it 
chanced,  Mr  Sawyer  and  the  judge  were  hunting 
together,  the  young  lawyer  remarked,  "I  think, 
judge,  there  is  something  wrong  in  that  decision.  The 
injunction  is  a  little  severe,  and  I  don't  think  our 
side  of  the  matter  was  presented  in  its  proper  light." 
"Well,"  was  the  answer,  "  If  you  think  so,  why  don't 
you  move  to  modify  it  ?  "  "Because  I  am  only  a  sub- 
ordinate, and  it  is  not  my  place  to  take  action  without 
consulting  my  principals."  "  If  you  think  you  can 
do  better,"  suggested  the  judge,  "  I  should  not  hesi- 
tate to  move  and  try."  On  this  hint,  and  without 
the  least  presage  of  what  the  result  would  be,  Mr 
Sawyer  gave  notice  to  the  plaintiff's  attorneys  that 
he  would  move  for  a  modification  of  the  injunction. 
Much  to  their  surprise,  and  not  a  little  to  their  dis- 
gust, first  that  the  motion  should  be  made  at  all,  and 
second  that  it  should  be  made  by  a  junior  in  the 
absence  of  his  principals,  the  case  was  decided  in 
favor  of  Mr  Sawyer's  client  and  the  injunction  so 
modified  as  to  be  harmless.  Such  a  victory,  won 
single-handed  against  two  of  the  most  prominent 
lawyers  in  the  western  states,  gained  for  him  no  small 
repute.  And  now  he  began  to  be  spoken  of  as  one 
of  the  rising  men,  not  only  in  professional  but 
in  political  circles,  as  a  man  whom  the  people  wanted, 
in  a  word  as  the  right  man  in  the  right  place. 

Doubtless  Mr  Sawyer  was  the  right  man,  but  he 
was  not  as  yet  in  the  right  place  ;  for  with  his  ability 
and  industry,  his  excellent  habits  and  his  rare  capac- 
ity for  work,  success  was  assured  wheresoever  he 
cast  in  his  lot.  Though  even  if  he  remained  at  Jeffer- 


38  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

son  the  future  was  fall  of  promise,  there  were  better 
openings  than  could  be  found  in  what  were  then  the 
frontier  settlements  of  the  west.  From  the  further 
west,  about  this  time  tidings  of  the  gold  discovery 
were  beino-  noised  throughout  the  world,  and  he 

O  O 

resolved  to  go  to  California,  led  to  this  decision  partly 
by  reading  the  newspapers,  but  more  by  the  sight  of 
a  bagfull  of  nuggets  which  a  successful  miner  dis- 
played to  the  wonder-stricken  citizens  of  Jefferson. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1850  he  set  forth  across  the 
plains,  accompanied  by  a  party  of  young  men  from 
Wisconsin,  making  the  trip  from  St  Joseph  to  Hang- 
town  in  seventy-two  days,  the  shortest  time,  so  far  as 
known,  in  which  the  journey  had  been  accomplished 
by  a  wagon  train.  Of  that  journey  no  record  need 
here  be  given,  though  many  of  its  incidents  were 
published  in  a  series  of  articles  contributed  by  Mr 
Sawyer  to  the  Ohio  Observer,  and  copied  in  several 
western  journals,  as  furnishing  most  valuable  data  to 
those  who  might  follow.  Many  times  since  then 
he  has  crossed  the  mountains  recognizing  many  of 
the  places  passed  when  first  on  his  way  to  the  land  of 
gold.  He  has  lived  to  cross  the  Rocky  mountain  range 
at  five  different  points  by  rail,  and  at  two  by  teams. 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  July  when  his  party, 
after  nearly  three  months  of  travel,  enjoyed  their 
first  brief  rest  at  Hangtown,  in  the  county  whose 
name  has  since  been  aptly  applied  to  the  golden  state. 
At  this  time  Mr  Sawyer's  worldly  effects  consisted  of 
a  small  stock  of  clothing,  a  smaller  stock  of  money,  a 
copy  of  Shakespeare  presented  to  him  by  Professor 
Bosworth  of  the  Black  river  institute,  and  eleven 
volumes  of  law  books,  the  latter  hermetically  sealed 
in  a  tin  case  purchased  for  the  purpose.  To  pack 
these  books  across  the  mountains  had  already  cost 
him  the  sum  of  fifty  dollars  and,  as  we  shall  see,  this 
little  library  was  destined  to  play  an  important  part 
in  his  career  and  become  historic. 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  39 

After  a  brief  experience  in  mining,  mainly  at 
Coloma,  where  gold  was  first  discovered,  he  concluded 
that  his  profession  would  be  to  him  a  richer  mine 
than  any  he  was  likely  to  discover.  Sacramento  was 
then  the  paradise  of  the  profession,  where  many  a 
costly  land  and  mining  suit  was  decided  at  every  term 
of  court.  Here  he  arrived  in  no  very  cheerful  mood, 
sleeping  in  barns  by  the  wayside,  with  his  clothes 
worn  out,  and  himself  in  the  same  condition  from 
exposure,  hardship,  and  excessive  toil.  Still  he  faltered 
not;  nor  was  he  discouraged,  accepting  as  the  first 
work  that  was  offered  the  copying  of  the  assignment 
of  the  then  great  banker  and  bankrupt,  Barton  Lee, 
for  which  he  received  an  ounce  of  gold-dust.  But  for 
a  man  of  Mr  Sawyer's  ability,  there  was  no  occasion 
to  hide  his  head  under  a  bushel,  and  soon  we  find  him 
in  partnership  with  the  city  recorder  and  police 
judge,  Frank  Washington;  then  sickness  came  upon 
him,  a  sickness  contracted  during  his  overland  jour- 
ney, and  for  several  weeks  he  was  unable  to  work. 
At  this  juncture  began  the  squatter  riots,  and  of  these 
he  was  one  of  the  spectators,  dragging  himself  from 
his  berth  under  the  common  council  room  to  witness 
the  scenes  that  followed.  He  saw  the  dead  and 
wounded  as  they  fell  and  before  removed  from  the 
street,  among  whom  was  Mayor  Bigelow,  who  after- 
wards died  from  his  wounds. 

In  October  of  1850,  Mr  Sawyer,  in  order  to  recover 
his  health,  removed  to  Nevada  city,  where  he  prac- 
tised his  profession  until  the  autumn  of  1853,  except 
for  a  few  months  spent  in  practice  at  the  capital  and 
the  metropolis,  where  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
Judge  Roderick  N.  Morrison  and  his  nephew,  Frank 
M.  Pixley.  Not  least  among  the  causes  that  led  to 
his  success  in  Nevada  was  his  law  library.  True  it 
consisted  only  of  eleven  volumes ;  but  at  that  time 
good  law  books  were  scarce,  more  so  even  than  good 
lawyers.  His  works  included  Blackstone,  Chitty  on 
Contracts,  Smith's  Mercantile  Law,  Story's  Equity  Juris- 


40  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

prudence,  Wilcox     Practice,  Swans  Justice,    a  book  of 
Ohio  practice,  and  Greenleafs  Evidence. 

The  history  of  these  books  is  worth  relating,  for 
few  persons  or  things  passed  through  more  perils 
from  desert,  fire,  and  flood,  than  did  these  eleven 
volumes.  First  of  all,  they  narrowly  escaped  being  left 
at  the  sink  of  the  Humboldt  river,  where  some  of  the 
wagons  were  deserted,  and  the  labor  and  cost  of  carry- 
ing them  further  were  great.  They  were  once  thrown 
out,  but  a  friend  who  left  his  wagon  consented  to  pack 
them  in,  and  thus  they  were  saved.  In  May  1851 
their  owner  and  his  partners  were  settled  in  a  second 
floor  office  on  Commercial  street,  in  San  Francisco, 
which  also  served  as  bedroom.  At  that  date  fires 
were  frequent,  so  frequent  that  they  thought  little  of 
them.  After  several  alarms  that  proved  of  no  con- 
sequence, Mr  Pixley  vowed  that  in  case  of  another 
alarm  he  would  not  stir  from  his  room  until  the  walls 
were  hot.  He  had  not  long  to  wait.  About  mid- 
night on  the  fourth  of  May  he  was  roused  from  sleep 
by  Sawyer,  who  quietly  remarked:  "Frank,  you  had 
better  get  up;  the  walls  are  getting  hot."  There 
was  barely  time  to  pack  their  loose  effects  in 
blankets  and  to  reach  the  street,  when  the  fire  was 
upon  them,  and  they  were  obliged  to  pay  $50  for  the 
use  of  a  dray  to  convey  their  property  to  the  cus- 
tom-house building  on  California  and  Montgomery 
streets,  then  the  southern  limit  of  the  city,  and,  as  they 
thought,  a  place  of  safety.  But  the  fire,  leaping  from 
building  to  building,  travelled  almost  as  fast  as  the  dray 
and  finally  swept  away  everything  down  to  the  bay. 
There  was  now  no  alternative  but  for  each  one  to 
seize  what  he  could  carry  and  escape  from  the  track  of 
the  conflagration.  Shouldering  the  trunk  which  con- 
tained his  clothing  and  papers,  Sawyer  carried  it 
beyond  reach  of  the  flames,  and  gave  up  his  books  as 
lost  to  him  forever.  But  two  days  after  it  was  reported 
that  some  property  of  his  was  on  board  a  vessel  lying 
in  the  stream.  And  so  it  proved.  Seeing  the  blankets 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  41 

and  their  contents,  close  to  what  was  then  the  water- 
front, somebody  had  rescued  them  and  put  them  on 
board  the  ship  then  lying  at  the  wharf.  She  cut 
loose  and  swung  into  the  stream,  and  there  they  lay 
uninjured.  Much  other  property  was  found  on  the 
same  ship. 

Again,  a  few  weeks  later,  on  the  22d  of  June,  the 
fire-bell  tolled  a  general  alarm,  and  as  Sawyer  was 
breakfasting  with  Pixley,  at  the  Jackson  street  res- 
taurant, the  flames  came  roaring  down  upon  them, 
once  more  sweeping  the  city  out  of  existence,  except 
a  few  buildings  on  the  west  side  of  the  plaza.  Dis- 
couraged by  these  calamities,  a  month  later  found  Mr 
Sawyer  en  route  for  Nevada  city,  journeying  by  way 
of  Marysville.  At  a  hotel  at  the  latter  place  he  left 
his  trunk,  containing  his  clothing  and  books,  for  as  yet 
he  had  not  decided  where  to  locate,  and  took  stage 
for  Nevada  city.  Next  day  after  his  arrival  came 
news  that  the  city  of  Marysville  was  burnt  to  the 
ground,  including  the  hotel,  which  stood  in  its  centre. 
Supposing,  of  course,  his  trunk  was  destroyed,  Sawyer 
dismissed  the  matter  from  his  mind,  and  settled  him- 
self to  work.  But  the  books  were  not  made  to  be 
burned;  they  were  not  so  predestined;  for  books,  like 
men,  have  a  destiny  to  fulfill.  In  the  following  week 
a  teamster  drove  up  with  goods  for  Clark's  drugstore, 
in  which  was  Sawyer's  office.  The  teamster's  name, 
as  now  remembered,was  Oglesby,  afterward  governor 
of  Illinois.  Introduced  to  Mr  Sawyer  he  inquired  his 
Christian  name.  "  Lorenzo,"  was  the  answer.  "  Well," 
said  the  teamster,  "I  saw  a  trunk  with  the  name 
of  Lorenzo  Sawyer  on  the  card  about  a  mile  from 
Marysville,  stored  in  a  large  house  with  other  prop- 
erty saved  from  the  fire."  The  trunk  came  safe  to 
Nevada  on  the  next  trip  of  the  teamster.  Some  six 
years  later  Mr  Sawyer  went  east,  as  he  thought  to 
remain,  and  after  some  further  adventures,  the  books 
— except  Shakespeare  and  Blackstone — were  trans- 
ferred to  the  law  firm  of  Buckner  and  Hill,  with  the' 


42  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

rest  of  his  then  quite  respectable  law  library.  By 
them  they  were  afterward  disposed  of  to  A.  A.  Sar- 
gent, and  by  him  to  the  county  of  Nevada,  where, 
after  escaping  a  fire  or  two  in  Nevada,  in  the  public 
library  they  found  at  length  a  resting-place.  Here, 
after  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Mr  Sawyer 
again  caught  sight  of  his  immortal  volumes,  whose 
history  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  typical  California 
adventurer.  Shakespeare  and  Blackstone  afterwards 
went  east  around  Cape  Horn  and  came  back  to  Cali- 
fornia as  slow  freight  by  the  Isthmus,  upon  sailing 
vessels.  They  are  now  in  Judge  Sawyer's  library. 
Blackstone  is  the  copy  in  which  Judge  Sawyer  read 
his  first  law.  It  was  the  gift  of  the  president  of 
Central  college. 

Many  were  the  interesting  cases  which  Sawyer  tried 
at  Nevada  city,  after  a  careful  preparation  at  his  office, 
connected  with  the  drugstore,  consisting  at  first  of  a 
few  square  feet  near  the  sidewalk,  if  sidewalk  there 
was,  and  for  furniture  a  single  chair,  a  paper  clip,  and 
a  table,  fashioned  by  his  own  hands  of  shakes  or  bar- 
rel staves,  and  serving  at  times  as  dining-room  table 
for  the  al  fresco  meals  of  which  he  was  himself  the 
cook.  For  his  first  case  he  was  indebted  to  the 
doctor  and  druggist,  who  besides  being  his  messmate 
acted  as  dish-washer  for  the  household.  It  came 
about  in  this  wise:  One  day  the  druggist  invited  to 
dinner  three  miners  with  whom  he  was  acquainted. 
After  being  introduced  to  Sawyer  one  of  them 
remarked:  "I  understand  you  are  from  Ohio?" 

"Yes,  I  am  from  Ohio." 

"You  have  not  been  here  long?" 

"No,  I  have  only  just  come. 

"  Have  you  ever  tried  any  of  these  mining  suits 

"  No,  but  I  would  like  to  get  a  chance  to  try  one." 

"I  suppose  you  know  the  principles  they  depend 
upon?" 

"  I  believe  that  I  understand  them.  We  have  to 
go  to  the  witnesses  for  both  law  and  facts,  I  believe." 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  ±3 

"Well,  we  are  from  Ohio,  and  have  a  suit.  If  you 
think  you  can  manage  the  case  I  will  give  it  to  you. 
We  have  got  into  a  little  difficulty  over  here  on  Gold 
flat.  We  had  taken  up  a  claim  and  were  working  it, 
but  a  company  from  Tennessee  has  jumped  it  and  we 
want  to  recover." 

The  man  then  stated  his  case  in  detail,  whereupon 
Sawyer  replied  that  if  his  statements  were  proved 
he  thought  the  suit  could  be  won.  As  this  was  Saw- 
yer's first  mining  case,  a  fee  of  fifty  dollars  was  agreed 
upon  and  paid  down — a  small  amount  for  a  mining 
suit  in  the  days  of  fifty-one  ;  but  Sawyer  had  not 
yet  learned  how  to  charge, — about  the  only  part  of 
his  profession  in  fact  that  he  has  never  thoroughly 
learned.  On  the  same  day  the  complaint  was  drawn, 
and  within  forty -eight  hours  suit  was  commenced  and 
summons  served  on  the  defendants.  The  opposing  coun- 
sel, one  of  whom  was  Judge  William  T.  Barber,  were 
able  and  experienced  lawyers,  rating  Sawyer,  who 
stood  alone,  as  little  better  than  a  novice.  But  they 
did  not  know  their  man.  At  every  step  the  case  was 
stubbornly  contested,  from  the  pleadings  to  the  clos- 
ing argument  on  either  side.  For  the  plaintiff  the 
witnesses  were  for  the  most  part  from  Ohio,  for  the 
defendant  they  were  southerners,  and  so  conflicting 
was  their  testimony,  that  perjury  was  clearly  commit- 
ted on  one  side  or  the  other.  After  a  three  days' 
trial  the  jury  retired  to  consider  their  verdict ;  and 
believing  that  they  could  not  agree,  and  would  proba- 
bly be  locked  up  for  the  night,  Sawyer  went  home  to 
dinner.  While  at  table  a  shout  was  heard,  and  pres- 
ently a  number  of  men  ran  up  to  the  store.  "  Where 
is  Sawyer  T  cried  the  leader.  "We  have  won  our 
suit.  Where  are  your  scales  ?"  And  without  fur- 
ther phrase  he  weighed  out,  with  a  heavy  down  thug, 
another  fifty  dollars'  worth  of  gold-dust. 

But  the  most  important  case,  and  the  one  which 
helped  more  than  any  other  to  establish  his  reputa- 
tion, and  the  one  more  than  any  other  ever  tried  by 


44  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

him  that  affected  his  future  destiny,  was  the  Rough 
and  Ready  mining  suit,  tried  in  the  town  of  that  name 
before  E.  W.  Roberts,  afterward  county  judge  and 
state  senator,  and  involving  the  possession  of  a  claim 
on  Yuba  river  valued  at  several  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Sawyer  appeared  for  the  plaintiffs,  and  for  the 
defendants  Judge  Townsend  was  the  leading  counsel. 
As  the  parties  to  the  suit  were  numerous  and 
wealthy,  it  was  said  to  have  been  agreed  that  all 
the  hotel  bills,  including'  wines  and  cigars,  for  clients 
and  witnesses,  jury  and  lawyers,  should  be  included 
in  the  costs,  to  be  paid  of  course  by  those  who 
should  lose  the  suit.  At  the  close  of  the  trial  it  was 
found  that  the  legal  costs  amounted  to  nearly  $2,000, 
with  hotel  bills  of  more  than  double  that  amount. 
The  whole  surrounding  country  took  an  interest  on 
one  side  or  another. 

During  the  progress  of  the  case  the  two  hotels  of 
Rough  and  Ready  were  crowded  with  guests,  and 
among  them  were  several  ladies,  all  of  whom  took  sides 
with  the  contestants,  who,  it  was  said,  had  their  spies 
in  the  opposing  camp.  At  the  first  trial  the  jury  dis- 
agreed ,  and  at  the  second,  after  a  ten  days'  struggle, 
the  jury  retired  at  one  o'clock  on  a  Sabbath  morn- 
ing to  consider  their  verdict.  Sawyer  made  the  clos- 
ing argument.  A  few  minutes  later  they  returned 
into  court,  or  rather  into  the  warehouse  where  the 
cause  was  heard,  with  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiffs. 
The  scene  which  followed  was  such  as  had  probably 
never  been  witnessed  in  Rough  and  Ready.  Amid 
deafening  cheers  and  tossing  of  hats,  Mr  Sawyer, 
before  he  could  escape  from  the  uproar,  was  forced 
into  a  chair  and  borne  in  triumph  on  the  shoulders 
of  his  excited  clients  to  his  hotel,  surrounded  by  a 
surging  throng  shouting  "  Hurrah  for  Sawyer  !  "  In 
the  same  way,  but  with  less  enthusiasm,  they  treated 
Justice  Roberts ;  and  then  came  the  serious  business  of 
the  evening,  or  rather  of  the  morning ;  but  this  we  will 
leave  to  the  reader's  imagination,  remarking  only 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  45 

that  Rough  and  Ready  was  then  one  of  the  richest 
mining  camps  in  the  state,  and  that  saloons  and 
dance-houses  were  plentiful.  In  the  orgies  which  fol- 
lowed it  need  not  be  said  that  neither  judge  nor 
counsel  participated. 

Many  were  the  amusing  incidents  of  these  early 
days,  and  many  the  pleasant  hour  that  is  still  passed 
in  recalling  them.  But  not  always  were  they  amus- 
ing. For  days  at  a  time  Mr  Sawyer  has  been  in  peril 
of  his  life,  his  footsteps  dogged  by  men  who  had 
vowed  to  take  his  life.  On  one  occasion,  while 
addressing  a  jury,  at  night  a  man  who  nursed  a  fancied 
wrong  was  about  to  strike  him  on  the  head  from 
behind  with  a  long  block  of  wood,  which  had  the 
blow  fallen  would  probably  have  ended  his  career, 
but  the  raised  hand  was  seized  by  the  sheriff  and 
another  friend.  At  another  time  his  partner, 
E.  F.  W.  Ellis,  was  commenting  sharply  on  the 
evidence  of  a  witness  from  Tennessee,  and  from  whom 
he  was  separated  only  by  the  table  in  front  of  which  he 
stood.  The  man  drew  his  revolver,  but  quick  as  a 
flash  the  other  leaped  with  drawn  knife  over  the  table, 
and  almost  as  quickly  his  would-be  assassin  was  in 
the  street.  Here  it  may  be  mentioned  that  by  Mr 
Ellis  was  framed  the  first  sole  traders'  act,  and  that 
mainly  by  his  efforts  its  passage  was  secured.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  civil  war  he  enlisted  as  a  volunteer, 
was  promoted  to  the  colonelcy  of  the  15th  Illinois 
regiment,  and  at  Shiloh  devoted  to  the  cause  of  his 
country  the  life  which  the  southerner  had  imperiled. 

In  the  autumn  of  1853  Mr  Sawyer  again  removed 
to  San  Francisco,  and  there,  except  for  an  occasional 
visit  to  the  eastern  states,  and  a  short  sojourn  to  Illi- 
nois, he  has  ever  since  resided.  A  few  months  later, 
at  a  time  when  litigation  was  constant,  and  when  the 
city  was  involved  in  many  suits,  he  was  elected  city 
attorney.  Of  this  portion  of  his  career  it  need  only 
be  said  that  during  his  term  no  judgment  was  ren- 


46  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

dered  against  the  city,  while  of  those  which  were 
given  in  its  favor  only  one  was  reversed  on  appeal. 
So  ably  did  he  conduct  his  cases,  that  in  the  follow- 
ing year  when  a  candidate  before  the  convention  for 
nomination  as  supreme  court  judge,  he  was  defeated 
only  by  half  a  dozen  votes.  But,  as  we  know,  influ- 
ence, rather  than  character  and  ability  sometimes 
carries  the  day  in  such  matters. 

In  the  spring  of  1861  we  find  Mr  Sawyer  in  Wash- 
ington, where  he  first  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Leland  Stanford.  At  the  moment  it  was  not  the 
intention  of  the  former  to  return  to  California,  for  he 
had  been  widely  recommended  for  the  chief-justice- 
ship of  Colorado,  then  recently  organized  as  a 
territory  and  with  good  prospect  of  success.  But 
said  his  friends  from  the  golden  state,  of  whom  there 
were  many  in  the  capital,  "  Why  go  to  Colorado  ? 
Go  back  where  you  are  known.  The  highest  position 
on  the  Nevada  bench  is  open  to  you."  He  aban- 
doned his  candidacy  for  the  chief  justiceship  of  Col- 
orado and  sought  the  appointment  for  Nevada  in 
preference.  But  fortunately  perhaps  for  himself,  and 
certainly  for  California,  another  was  appointed  to  the 
office.  A  fortnight  later  he  with  his  family  was  on 
his  way  to  New  York  en  route  for  San  Francisco. 

The  week  which  Mr  Sawyer  passed  in  the  great 
metropolis,  while  awaiting  the  departure  of  the 
steamer,  was  probably  the  most  stirring  experience  of 
his  life.  On  the  first  day  of  that  week  the  roar  of 
cannon  at  Fort  Sumter  had  proclaimed  to  the  world 
the  opening  of  the  civil  war,  and  all  was  turmoil  and 
confusion.  Business  was  not  to  be  thought  of;  in  its 
place  was  the  tramp  of  armed  men  and  the  crash  of 
military  bands.  Every  day,  and  sometimes  thrice  a 
day,  ships  laden  with  troops  for  the  defence  of  Wash- 
ington cast  loose  from  the  crowded  piers.  It  was  a 
spectacle  such  as  few  have  witnessed,  such  as  few 
would  care  to  witness  ;  one  sadder  even  than  was  seen 
in  Brussels  on  the  eve  of  Quatre  Bras. 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  47 

Soon  after  returning  from  the  east  Mr  Sawyer 
entered  into  partnership  with  General  Charles  H.  S. 
Williams,  one  of  California's  ablest  lawyers.  At  that 
date  the  Comstock  lode  was  begmniner  to  reveal  its 

O  O 

marvellous  wealth,  and  endless  were  the  lawsuits  aris- 
ing from  conflicting  claims.  About  the  close  of  1861, 
the  firm  decided  to  open  a  branch  office  at  Virginia 
city  and  of  this  Mr  Sawyer  was  placed  in  charge.  On 
New  Year's  day  of  1862  we  find  him  in  the  streets  of 
Sacramento,  or  rather  in  the  water  which  covered  its 
streets,  for  it  was  a  year  of  flood,  and  the  city  lay  in 
the  midst  of  a  vast  inland  lake.  Rowing  in  an  open' 
boat  to  the  highlands,  he  journeyed  by  train  to 
Folsom,  and  thence  by  stage  to  his  destination, 
where  he  was  at  once  acknowledged  as  the  leader  of 
the  bar. 

On  May  27th  of  this  year,  while  trying  an 
important  case,  he  received  by  telegram  from 
Governor  Stanford  an  offer  of  the  judgeship 
of  the  twelfth  district  court,  made  vacant  by 
the  resignation  of  Alexander  Campbell.  For  a 
time  Mr  Sawyer  hesitated.  He  had  been  retained 
in  most  of  the  great  mining  cases  pending  at  the  time, 
for  which  apart  from  large  contingent  interests,  his 
fees  would  have  amounted  to  more  than  the  total  sum 
he  has  since  received  for  thirty  vears'  service  on 
the  bench.  But  while  not  underestimating  the 
value  of  money,  there  were  other  things  which  he 
valued  more,  and  among  them  the  happiness  of  his 
wife  and  family,  for  whom  there  could  be  no  attraction 
in  Virginia  city.  After  exchanging  messages  with 
Mrs  Sawyer,  therefore,  he  decided  to  accept,  on  the 
same  night  the  trial  was  finished,  and  on  the  following- 
day  he  was  en  route  for  San  Francisco,  crossing  the 
snow-covered  mountains  on  horseback  to  the  point 
where  a  road  was  open  for  vehicles.  Reaching 
Sacramento  only  a  few  minutes  before  the  steamer 
sailed,  he  ran  to  the  governor's  office  and  thence,  his 
commission  in  hand,  to  the  wharf.  The  boat  had 


48  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

put  off,  and  from  it  he  was  separated  by  several  feet, 
but  clearing  the  space  with  a  bound  he  landed  safely 
on  deck  and  soon  after  nightfall  reached  his  home 
on  Saturday  night.  On  Monday  morning  he  opened 
court  at  Redwood  city. 

For  the  twelfth  judicial  district,  including  the 
counties  of  San  Francisco  and  San  Mateo,  Sawyer  was 
soon  afterwards  chosen  for  the  full  term,  and  without 
opposition,  both  parties  placing  him  in  nomination. 
Under  the  provisions  of  the  state  constitution,  as 
amended  in  1863,  he  was  elected  on  the  republican 
ticket  judge  of  the.  supreme  court,  and  on  casting 
lots  drew  the  six  years'  term,  for  the  last  two  of 
which  he  was  chief-justice.  In  1869,  when  the  circuit 
courts  of  the  United  States  were  re-organized  by  act 
of  congress,  he  was  nominated  by  President  Grant 
circuit  judge  for  the  ninth  circuit,  comprising  all  the 
Pacific  states.  The  nomination  was  confirmed  by  the 
seriate  without  a  dissenting  vote,  and  early  in  the 
following  year  Sawyer  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the 
office  which  he  has  ever  since  retained. 

Except  perhaps  Justice  Field,  Judge  Sawyer  has 
been  called  upon,  during  his  long  career  on  the 
bench,  to  decide  more  questions  relating  to  the  settle- 
ment and  preservation  of  land  titles  than  any  member 
of  the  judiciary.  ,  Of  late  years  there  have  been  many 
efforts  to  set  aside  the  patents  issued  after  years  of 
litigation  to  Spanish  grantees.  In  these  cases  parties 
whose  claims  were  long  since  barred  by  the  statute 
of  limitation  have  received  the  permission  of  the 
attorney-general  to  bring  suit  in  the  name  of  the 
United  States,  thus  renewing  the  litigation  twenty 
or  thirty  years  after  the  issue  of  the  patent,  for  in 
such  cases  the  statute  of  limitation  does  not  apply 
to  the  United  States.  Of  this  class  were  the  suits  of 
the  United  States  versus  the  San  Jacinto  tin  com- 
pany, United  States  versus  Throckmorton,  United 
States  versus  Carpentier,  and  many  others.  The  judg- 
ment rendered  by  Sawyer  in  favor  of  the  defendants 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  49 

was  in  every  instance  affirmed,  much  to  the  relief  of 
land  owners,  for  had  it  been  otherwise,  a  distrust 
would  have  been  created  of  all  titles  derived  under 
Spanish  grants.  Next  in  importance  were  the  mining 
debris  suits,  of  which  the  more  important  cases, 
including  that  of  Woodruff  versus  the  North  Bloom- 
field  mining  company,  were  decided  in  the  circuit 
court.  The  other  great  cases  decided  by  Judge 
Sawyer  are  too  numerous  to  specially  mention. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  professional  career  of 
Lorenzo  Sawyer,  extending  over  well-nigh  half  a 
century,  for  nearly  thirty  years  of  which  he  has  been 
one  of  the  most  honored  members  of  our  judiciary.  To 
the  other  members  of  that  judiciary  it  is  no  injustice 
to  say  that  by  his  learning  and  ability,  by  his  industry 
and  research,  and  above  all  by  his  perfect  integrity, 
he  did  as  much  as  any  living  man  to  give  to  the  tri- 
bunals of  California  their  high  repute.  If  he  is  not 
a  man  of  genius  or  of  brilliant  parts — to  such  qual- 
ities he  never  laid  claim,  nor  are  they  wanted  in  a 
judge — he  possesses  what  is  far  better  than  genius,  a 
fund  of  sound,  practical,  common  sense,  and  the  busi- 
ness capability  which,  in  a  measure,  his  position 
demands.  By  none  is  he  excelled  in  the  patience  and 
application  which  he  brings  to  bear  on  his  cases, 
probing  them  to  their  inmost  depths,  dissecting  them, 
and  weighing  the  points  at  issue  with  the  surest  dis- 
crimination. Said  the  American  Law  Review,  then  pub- 
lished at  Boston  when  Sawyer  was  chief-justice  of 
this  state :  "  The  history  of  California  is  a  history  of 
marvellous  phenomena,  and  not  the  least  is  its  juris- 
prudence. Less  than  twenty  years  ago  the  common 
law  was  unknown  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  to-day  we 
find  the  supreme  court  of  California  holding  it  with 
a  comprehensive  grasp,  and  administering  it  with  an 
ability  decidedly  superior  to  that  shown  by  the  tribu- 
nals of  many  much  older  communities." 

Law,    Judge  Sawyer    regarded  as    a    progressive 
science,  whose  principles  must  be  adapted  from  time 

C.  B.— II.     4 


50  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

to  time  to  the  ever-changing  condition  of  human 
affairs.  Take,  for  instance,  railroad  and  corporation 
laws.  Those  which  existed  half  a  century  ago  are  not  a 
tithe  of  those  which  now  exist,  and  perhaps  not  the 
hundredth  part  of  those  which  will  exist  half  a 
century  hence.  Even  in  the  older  and  long-settled 
states,  as  in  New  England,  even  in  England  herself, 
new  questions  are  constantly  arising  ;  much  more  so 
is  this  the  case  in  the  far  west,  and  especially  in  Cali- 
fornia, with  her  numberless  statutes  relating  to  mining 
and  irrigation.  In  early  days  the  civil  law  of  Spain, 
as  modified  by  Mexico  and  California,  was  the  one  in 
force.  There  were  no  law  libraries,  and  even  the 
language  in  which  the  statutes  and  laws  were 
expressed  was  but  little  understood.  Gradually  the 
civil  law  was  discarded,  or  consolidated  with  the 
common  law,  many  suits  begun  under  the  former 
being  concluded  under  the  latter.  In  fact,  a  new 
system  of  laws  has  been  developed,  especially  as  to 
land  titles,  for  many  years  a  fruitful  source  of 
litigation. 

As  to  the  functions  and  character  of  the  judiciary, 
Judge  Sawyer  remarked  at  a  meeting  of  the  asso- 
ciated alumni  of  the  Pacific  coast,  on  the  3d  of 
June  1868,  "  In  my  judgment  it  is  impossible  for  an 
enlightened  people  to  prize  too  highly  a  thoroughly 
capable,  watchful,  honest,  independent,  and  fearless 
judiciary.  Such  a  judiciary  is  not  only  the  safeguard 
and  the  hope  of  American  liberty,  but  is  the  princi- 
pal stay  and  support  of  freedom,  and  of  the  social 
fabric  every  where.  The  administration  of  justice  and 
its  handmaid,  religion,  although  perhaps  in  a  form  in 
some  degree  rudimental,  march  hand  in  hand  in  the 
van  of  civilization.  They  also  in  their  more  perfect 
development  constitute  the  crowning  glory  in  the 
meridian  splendor  of  every  enlightened  age.  As 
these  elements  in  the  social  economy  become  cor- 
rupt, gradually  decline  and  disappear,  the  twilight 
of  a  waning  civilization  again  shades  away  into  the 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  51 

night  of  barbarism.  There  can  be  no  assured  enjoy- 
ment of  civil  liberty,  no  social  security,  no  perma- 
nently advanced  stage  in  the  development  of  our 
race,  no  stability  in  the  institutions  of  civilization, 
where  there  is  no  honest,  effective,  and  fearless 
administration  of  the  law ;  where  the  fountain  of 
justice  is  not  pure,  and  where  its  stream  is  not 
allowed  to  flow  freely  and  without  obstruction,  and 
unaffected  by  disturbing  influences.  On  the  other  hand, 
wherever  the  laws  are  faithfully  administered  by  a 
capable,  independent,  and  fearless  judiciary  ;  wherever 
strict  justice  is  meted  out  to  every  individual,  whether 
rich  or  poor,  high  or  low  ;  wherever  the  thatched 
cottage  of  the  lowest  born  is  the  castle  of  the  pro- 
prietor, which,  while  the  winds  and  rain  may  enter, 
the  king  may  not ;  wherever  the  judiciary  is  no 
respecter  of  persons,  always  hold  ing  the  scales  of  jus- 
tice even,  with  an  'eye  single  to  the  trepidations  of 
the  balance' — there  no  remnant  of  barbarism  will  be 
found.  In  the  words  of  one  who  clothed  his  great 
thoughts  in  language  second  only  in  terseness  and 
felicity  of  expression  to  that  of  him  who  spake  as 
never  man  spake:  'Justice  is  the  great  interest  of 
man  on  earth.  It  is  the  ligament  which  holds  civ- 
ilized beings  and  civilized  nations  together.  Wher- 
ever her  temple  stands,  and  so  long  as  it  is  duly 
honored,  there  is  a  foundation  for  social  security, 
general  happiness,  and  the  improvement  and  progress 
of  our  race.  And  whoever  labors  on  this  edifice  with 
usefulness  and  distinction — whoever  clears  its  founda- 
tion, strengthens  its  pillars,  adorns  its  entablatures,  or 
contributes  to  raise  its  august  dome  still  higher  in 
the  skies,  connects  himself  in  name  and  fame  and 
character  with  that  which  is  and  must  be  as  dur- 
able as  the  frame  of  human  society.' 

"  Mr  President,  since  justice  is  the  great  inter- 
est of  man  on  earth,  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that 
wherever  and  whenever  the  judiciary  has  been 
independent  and  untrammeled,  except  so  far  as  it  is 


52  GOVERN  MENT— CALIFORNIA. 

bound  by  the  just  principles  of  the  law  itself,  there 
have  been  found  men  fully  equal  to  the  task  of  its 
intelligent  and  pure  administration.  True,  it  falls  to 
the  lot  of  but  few  in  any  one  generation  to  officiate 
in  the  highest  sanctuaries  of  justice,  and  to  fewer 
still  to  rival  those  judicial  Titans, 

'  The  law's  whole  thunder  born  to  wield.' 

"  But,  sir,  I  cannot  believe  it  possible  that  one 
endowed  with  fair  natural  abilities,  a  sound  and 
unbiased  judgment,  who  has  cultivated  his  talents 
with  diligence  and  care,  and  become  well  grounded 
in  the  ethics  of  the  law,  who  has  risen  to  a  true  con- 
ception of  the  magnitude,  and  become  thoroughly  pen- 
etrated with  the  vast  importance  of  the  mission  of  the 
judiciary,  in  its  relation  to  the  well-being  of  man,  and 
the  stability  of  good  government,  can  make  a  bad 
judge.  Such  a  man  may  not  attain  to  the  summit 
of  judicial  greatness  ;  he  may  not  be  a  brilliant  lum- 
inary, shedding  his  light  afar,  imparting  aliment 
and  warmth  to  nourish  and  promote  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  in  distant  lands;  but  he  cannot  fail 
to  be  a  worthy  judge,  and  useful  in  the  immediate 
sphere  of  his  influence  ;  he  cannot  fail  to  contribute 
in  some  degree  to  the  perpetuity  of  free  institutions." 

Sawyer's  reputation  as  a  jurist  has  long  since 
become  national,  and  among  other  recognitions  of 
his  attainments  and  services  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  in  1877  the  honorary  degree  of  doctor  of  laws 
was  conferred  upon  him  by  Hamilton  college  in 
New  York.  His  decisions,  as  contained  in  fourteen 
volumes  of  Sawyers  United  States  Courts'  Reports  and 
in  fifteen  volumes  of  the  California  Reports — volumes 
24  to  38  inclusive — are  among  the  classics  of  the  law. 
From  these  decisions  the  following  extracts  may  be 
of  interest.  In  the  case  of  Tiburcio  Parrott  on 
habeas  corpus,  arrested  for  employing  Chinamen,  in 
a  manner  prohibited  in  the  new  constitution,  his 
ruling  was  as  follows: 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  53 


"Holding,  as  we  do,  that  the  constitutional  and 
statutory  provisions  in  question  are  void  for  reasons 
already  stated,  we  deem  it  proper  again  to  call  pub- 
lic attention  to  the  fact,  however  unpleasant  it  may 
be  to  the  very  great  majority  of  the  citizens  of  Cal- 
ifornia, that,  however  undesirable,  or  even  ultimately 
dangerous  to  our  civilization  an  unlimited  immi- 
gration of  Chinese  may  be,  the  remedy  is  riot  with 
the  state  but  with  the  general  government.  The 
Chinese  have  a  perfect  right,  under  the  stipulations 
of  the  treaty,  to  reside  in  the  state  and  enjoy  all 
privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  that  may  be 
enjoyed  by  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  any  other 
nation  ;  and  under  the  fourteenth  amendment  to 
the  national  constitution,  the  right  to  enjoy  life, 
liberty,  and  property,  and  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws,  in  the  same  degree  and  to  the  same  extent  as 
these  rights  are  enjoyed  by  our  own  citizens.  To  per- 
sist in  state  legislation  in  direct  violation  of  treaty 
stipulations  and  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  to  endeavor  to  enforce  such  void  legis- 
lation, is  to  waste  efforts  in  a  barren  field,  which,  if 
expended  in  the  proper  direction,  might  be  produc- 
tive of  valuable  fruit,  and,  besides,  it  is  but  little 
short  of  incipient  rebellion." 

Among  his  most  exhaustive  decisions  was  the  one  in 
the  matter  of  Deputy  United  States  Marshall  Neagle 
on  habeas  corpus,  the  charge  against  him  being  the 
shooting  of  David  S.  Terry.  After  a  most  careful 
statement  of  the  facts  and  law  in  the  case,  including 
the  circumstances  under  which  Terry  was  shot,  he  con- 
cludes: "On  that  occasion  a  second,  or  two  seconds, 
signified  at  least  two  valuable  lives,  and  a  reasonable 
degree  of  prudence  would  justify  a  shot  one  or  two 
seconds  too  soon,  rather  than  one  or  two  seconds  too 
late.  Upon  our  minds  the  evidence  leaves  no  doubt 
whatever  that  the  homicide  was  fully  justified  by  the 
circumstances.  In  our  judgment  he  acted,  under  the 
trying  circumstances  surrounding  him,  in  good  faith, 


54  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

and  with  consummate  courage,  judgment,  and  discre- 
tion. The  homicide  was,  in  our  opinion,  clearly  justi- 
fiable in  law,  and  in  the  forum  of  sound,  practical, 
common  sense,  commendable.  This  being  so,  and  the 
act  having  been  done  in  pursuance  of  a  law  of  the 
United  States,  as  we  have  already  seen,  it  cannot  be 
an  offence  against,  and  he  is  not  amenable  to  the 
laws  of  the  state. 

"Let  the  petitioner  be  discharged.1' 

This  is  the  suit  of  Cunningham  versus  N eagle, 
wherein  the  propriety  of  killing  Terry  was  involved. 
Judge  Sawyer's  opinion  in  this  case,  as  affirmed  by 
the  supreme  court,  has  probably  been  more  widely  read 
than  any  that  has  been  delivered  from  the  bench 
of  the  United  States.  On  this  ruling  he  received 
complimentary  letters  from  every  section  of  the 
union,  from  Canada,  from  England,  Germany,  and 
other  European  countries,  and  even  from  Japan. 
The  stand  which  he  took  was  a  bold  one,  but  not 
more  so  than  the  occasion  demanded,  claiming  for  the 
national  government  all  the  powers  of  a  nation, 
including  that  of  self-protection  in  all  its  departments. 

In  politics  Judge  Sawyer  was  in  youth  a  whig,  a  dis- 
ciple of  Daniel  Webster,  Henry  Clay,  and  other  great 
leaders  of  the  party  whose  names  and  deeds  alone  sur- 
vive, arid  whose  principles  are  closely  blended  with  all 
that  is  best  worth  preserving  in  our  national  policy. 
One  of  those  who  organized  the  republican  party  in 
1856,  he  attended  the  Chicago  convention,  and  though 
not  a  delegate,  did  all  that  lay  within  his  power  to 
secure  the  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  his 
political,  as  in  his  judicial  career,  he  has  aimed  always 
at  the  right,  and  if  on  rare  occasions  his  judgment  has 
been  questioned,  none  have  ever  doubted  his  honesty 
and  sincerity. 

Since  1845  Judge  Sawyer  was  a  member  of 
the  society  of  odd  fellows,  and  since  1858  a  royal 
arch  mason.  Of  the  few  addresses  which  he  made 
in  public,  perhaps  the  one  which  has  been  most 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  55 

widely  read  and  commended,  one  that  was  compli- 
mented in  the  reports  of  all  the  grand  lodges  of  the 
United  States,  was  the  oration  delivered  in  October 
1879,  before  the  grand  lodge  of  California.  After 
tracing  in  choice  and  vigorous  language  the  history 
of  masonry,  from  the  days  of  Solomon  to  the  time 
when,  less  than  twenty  years  ago,  a  grand  lodge  of 
the  order  was  opened  under  the  shadow  of  the  Vati- 
can, he  continues: 

"Much  use  of  the  element  of  secrecy,  by  means  of 
which  brothers  of  the  fraternity  recognize  each  other 
among  strangers  and  protect  themselves  from 
imposition,  was  formerly  made  by  the  enemies  of  the 
order  for  the  purpose  of  inflaming  the  prejudices 
of  the  ignorant  and  the  iealous,  and  doubtless 

O  t/ 

with  some  effect.  The  publication  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  grand  lodges  authorized  during  later 
years  has,  however,  tended  largely  to  allay  these 
prejudices.  In  these  published  proceedings  the 
essential  workings  of  the  order  are  laid  open  to 
public  examination  and  criticism;  and  no  one  can 
read  them  as  they  appear  from  year  to  year  without 
being  strongly  impressed  with  the  good  tendencies 
of  the  principles  of  masonry  in  all  their  practical, 
as  well  as  speculative  workings,  as  is  there  made 
known  to  all.  We  are  no  propagandists.  We  extend 
a  special  invitation  to  no  man  to  enter  the  precincts 
of  masonry.  If  one  seeks  admission  to  our  society, 
it  is  unsolicited  and  of  his  own  free,  unbiased  will, 
after  a  full  investigation  of  our  principles  and  their 
practical  operation;  and  the  fact  that  so  many  intel- 
ligent men,  among  the  most  orderly  and  worthy  classes 
of  society,  seek  association  with  us  is  ample  evi- 
dence that  our  principles  meet  the  approbation  of  good 
men,  and  that  their  tendencies  are  all  to  good  order 
and  to  the  highest  interests  of  society  at  large.  Specu- 
lative masonry  is  not,  and  it  does  not  profess  to  be, 
a  religion  or  a  substitute  for  religion;  but  it  inculcates 
a  system  of  the  purest  morals,  which  is  an  essential 


58  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

element  and  necessary  concomitant  of  all  true  religion. 
There  are  certain  elements  or  principles  which  are 
universally  accepted  as  essential  to  all  systems  of 
faith  worthy  the  name  of  religion — such  as  a  belief 
in  a  supreme  being;  a  recognition  of  the  moral  dis- 
tinction between  right  and  wrong;  the  obligation  to 
recognize  and  cultivate  the  practice  of  all  the  virtues, 
such  as  temperance,  sobriety,  chastity,  fortitude,  pru- 
dence, justice,  and,  chief  of  all,  charity.  On  these 
principles  all  must  and  do  agree,  There  are  other 
points  of  faith  upon  which  the  reason  may  and  does 
pause,  inquire,  doubt;  and  yet  it  is  upon  these  latter 
that  zealots  and  enthusiasts  dogmatize  most  confi- 
dently, dispute  most  furiously,  and  hate  most  impla- 
cably. It  is  upon  these  very  points  where  we 
should  be  most  distrustful  of  the  correctness  of  our 
judgment  and  most  charitable  toward  the  views  of 
others,  that  man  is  most  confident,  most  obstinate, 
most  uncompromising;  and  it  is  upon  these  where  he 
consigns  his  fellowman  to  the  dungeon,  stretches  him 
upon  the  rack,  and  burns  him  at  the  stake.  Into  that 
disputed  territory  masonry  does  not  enter.  Its  lead- 
ing tenet,  charity,  forbids;  all  its  principles  prohibit 
it.  It  accepts  and  plants  itself  upon  those  self- 
evident  and  universally  accepted  principles  which 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  true  religion  and  all 
morality,  and  upon  the  recognition  and  practice  of 
which  all  human  happiness  must  rest.  It  earnestly 
and  constantly  inculcates  those  principles  in  its 
charges  in  the  lodge-room,  its  lectures,  orations,  and 
writings,  and  in  all  its  proceedings,  published  and 
unpublished.  It  admonishes  us  to  seek  after  truth, 
and  teaches  that  truth  is  an  attribute  of  divinity  and 
the  foundation  of  every  virtue.  In  the  language  of 
another,  already  familiar  to  you,  which  cannot  be 
improved  or  too  often  repeated  in  your  hearing,  the 
mason  '  is  instructed  to  put  a  due  restraint  upon  his 
affections  and  passions;  to  preserve  a  noble  and  steady 
purpose  of  mind,  equally  distant  from  cowardice  and 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  57 

rashness;  to  regulate  his  life  by  the  dictates  of  reason; 
and  to  render  to  every  man  his  just  due,  without  dis- 
tinction. In  short,  the  three  great  duties  of  life 
are  impressed  upon  his  conscience:  'reverence  to 
God,  the  chief  good;  kindness  to  his  neighbor,  as  pre- 
scribed by  the  golden  rule,  and  respect  for  himself, 
by  avoiding  irregularities  and  intemperance,  which 
impair  the  faculties  and  debase  the  dignity  of  his 
profession. ": 

One  of  Judge  Sawyer's  last  orations  was  at  the 
laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  university,  in  virtue  of  his  office  as  presi- 
dent of  the  board  of  trustees.  After  stating  the 
object  and  scope  of  the  institution,  he  said:  "  The 
little  grove  in  the  suburbs  of  Athens,  which  Acade- 
mus  presented  to  the  Athenians,  constituted  the 
academy  in  which  Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  their 
disciples  taught  their  pupils  philosophy,  rhetoric, 
logic,  poetry,  oratory,  mathematics,  the  fine  arts  and 
all  the  sciences  so  far  as  then  developed.  The  influ- 
ence emanating  from  those  schools,  notwithstanding 
their  limited  resources,  has  been  largely  felt  through 
all  succeeding  ages  ;  and  it  has,  to  this  day,  given 
direction  to  thought,  and  contributed  largely  to 
mold  the  characters  and  the  civil  institutions  of  all 
the  peoples  of  Europe,  and  their  descendants  in 
America,  and  wheresoever  else  they  may  be  found 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  people  of  that  little 
republic  of  Attica, — the  whole  area  of  whose  territor3r 
was  only  about  two-thirds  as  large  as  that  of  the 
county  of  Santa  Clara,  in  which  our  coming  uni- 
versity is  located — exercised  a  greater  influence 
over  the  civilization,  institutions,  and  destinies  of 
modern  nations  than  any  other  people,  however 
great. 

"The  groves  of  Palo  Alto — the  tall  tree — are 
much  larger  than  Academus'  sacred  shade.  These 
sturdy,  umbrageous  oaks,  with  Briarean  arms  ;  these 
stalwart,  spreading  laurels,  and  these  tall  eucalypti 


58  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

are  much  grander  and  more  imposing  than  the 
arbor-tenants  of  the  grove  at  Athens.  The  soil  of 
Palo  Alto  is  far  richer,  and  more  productive  than 
that  of  Attica ;  it  yields  as  fine  wheat,  as  delicious 
figs,  grapes,  olives,  and  other  fruits.  Its  scenery 
is  almost  as  grand  and  awe-inspiring,  and 
quite  as  picturesque.  Its  climate  is  as  dry,  equable, 
and  delightful.  The  arroyo  de  San  Francisquito  is 
as  flush  and  turbulent  in  winter,  if — although 
abundantly  supplied  for  all  purposes  of  the  university 
above — as  waterless  in  its  lower  reaches  in  summer 
as  the  two  rivulets  Cephissus  and  Ilissus.  The 
transparent  clearness  and  coloring  of  our  sky  is  as 
matchless  as  that  of  Attica,  and  the  azure  dome 
above  our  heads  by  day  or  night  is  as  pure  and  as 
brilliant  as  the  violet  crown  of  Athens.  All  our  con- 
ditions are  equally  favorable  to  health,  to  physical 
and  mental  development,  and  to  physical  and  mental 
enjoyment.  Not  an  hour  in  the  year  is  so  cold  as  to 
interfere  with  mental  or  physical  labor,  nor  an  hour 
so  hot  as  to  render  one  languid,  indisposed  to  physi- 
cal or  mental  exertion,  or  as  to  dull  the  edge  of 
thought.  There  is  not  a  place  in  our  broad  land 
outside  our  own  beloved  state,  where  one  can  per- 
form so  much  continuous  physical  or  mental  labor 
without  weariness  or  irksomeness.  Should  the 
plans  of  the  founders  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  university  be  carried  out  in  accordance 
with  their  grand  conceptions,  with  such  advan- 
tages as  the  location  and  climate  afford,  why  should  not 
students  be  attracted  to  its  portals,  not  only  from  Cali- 
fornia, but  from  all  other  states  of  our  vast  country, 
now  containing  60,000,000  of  people,  and  even  from 
foreign  lands  ?  What  should  prevent  this  university 
from  becoming  in  the  great  future  the  first  in  this,  or 
any  other  land  ?  When  fully  developed,  who  can 
estimate  its  influence  for  good  upon  the  destinies  of 
the  human  race  ? 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  59 

"A  word  to  the  founders  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  university.  It  is  fit  that  the  corner-stone  of 
this  edifice  should  be  laid  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
birth  of  him,  who,  while  yet  a  mere  youth,  first  sug- 
gested the  founding  of  a  university — a  suggestion 
upon  which  you  have  nobly  acted,  and  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  which  you  have  devoted  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  the  accumulations  of  a  most  energetic,  active, 
and  trying  life.  It  is  eminently  fit  that  an  institu- 
tion founded  and  endowed  on  that  suggestion  should 
bear  his  name.  The  ways  of  providence  are  inscru- 
table. Under  divine  guidance  his  special  mission  on 
earth  may  have  been  to  wake  and  set  in  motion  those 
slumbering  sentiments  and  moral  forces  which  have 
so  grandly  responded  to  the  impetus  given,  by  devot- 
ing so  large  a  portion  of  your  acquisitions,  and  the 
remainder  of  your  lives  to  the  realization  of  the  object 
thus  suggested.  If  so,  his  mission  has  been  nobly  per- 
formed, and  it  is  fit  that  both  his  name  and  the 
names  of  those  who  have  executed  his  behests  should 
be  enrolled  high  upon  the  scroll  of  fame,  and  of  the 
benefactors  of  the  human  race.  You  have  wisely 
determined,  during;  your  lives,  to  manage  and  control 

7  O    «/  C) 

for  yourselves  the  funds  of  the  foundation  ;  to  super- 
vise and  direct  the  arrangement  and  construction  of 
the  buildings  and  the  required  adjuncts,  and  to  super- 
intend and  give  direction  to  the  early  development 
and  workings  of  the  new  university.  This  is  well. 
He  who  conceives  is  the  one  to  successfully  execute. 
May  you  remain  among  us  to  manage  and  control 
this  great  work,  until  you  shall  see  the  institution 
founded  by  your  bounty  firmly  established  on  an 
immovable  basis,  enjoying  a  full  measure  of  prosper- 
ity, affording  the  citizens  of  your  adopted  state  the 
educational  advantages  contemplated,  and  dispensing 
to  all  the  blessings  and  benign  influences  that  ought 
to  flow  from  such  institutions.  Long  may  you  enjoy 
the  satisfaction  afforded  by  hopes  fully  realized — 
Sen  in  cddum  redeatis. 


60  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

"  Fellow-members  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  university,  in  accepting  this 
grand  trust  you  have  assumed  the  most  weighty 
responsibilities,  not  only  to  the  founders  of  the  uni- 
versity, but  to  the  children  and  youth  of  the  com- 
monwealth and  to  their  posterity  in  all  time  to  come. 
You  have  assumed  the  guardianship  of  the  vast  inher- 
itance to  which  they  have  fallen  heirs.  In  the  near 
future,  and  thenceforth  till  time  shall  be  no  more,  the 
duty  will  devolve  upon  us  and  our  successors  to 
administer  this  inheritance  in  such  manner  as  to 
accomplish  its  great  ends. 

"  Should  we  succeed  in  establishing  and  fully 
developing  the  new  university  in  accordance  with  the 
conception  and  purposes  of  its  founders — as  succeed 
we  must  with  proper  efforts,  and  proper  management, 
and  with  the  aid  and  blessing  of  the  omnipotent  and 
all- wise  being,  who  created  all  things,  and  without 
whose  approval  we  can  accomplish  nothing — its 
power  for  good  will  go  on  from  age  to  age  to  the  end 
of  time  increasing  and  expanding  until  no  corner  of 
this  broad  earth  will  be  beyond  its  humanizing,  ele- 
vating, and  benign  influences.  Invoking  the  divine 
blessing  on  our  work,  let  all  put  forth  a  united  con- 
tinued effort  to  secure  a  consummation  so  devoutly  to 
be  wished.  When  this  shall  have  been  done,  and  the 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  university  shall  have  been 
once  securely  established  upon  a  firm  and  stable  basis, 
we  may  exclaim  with  unhesitating  confidence  that  the 
idea  will  be  fully  realized,  esto  perpetua !  " 

It  was  in  1861,  as  I  have  said,  that  Judge  Sawyer 
first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Senator  Stanford,  and 
in  the  great  railroad  enterprise  of  which  the  latter  was 
one  of  the  projectors,  he  rendered  most  valuable 
assistance.  When  ground  was  broken  in  February 
1863,  the  project  was  regarded  rather  as  a  joke  than 
as  a  serious  undertaking.  The  efforts  made  by 
Governor  Stanford  and  his  associates  to  secure  the 
aid  of  San  Francisco  capitalists  were  utterly 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  61 

avail.  Still  they  pressed  on  until,  when  the  line  was 
completed  to  Newcastle,  their  funds  were  exhausted. 
Had  it  stopped  there,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  we 
should  have  had  a  transcontinental  railroad  to-day, 
and  it  is  certain  that  its  construction  would  have  been 
delayed  for  many  years.  No  movement  had  been 
made  on  the  other  side  until  it  was  fully  demon- 
strated on  this  side  that  the  road  would  be  built. 
At  this  juncture,  in  April  1864,  an  act  was  passed 
whereby  the  state  became  responsible  for  the  inter- 
est on  $1,500,000  of  bonds.  The  measure  was 
vigorously  assailed  and  by  many  pronounced  uncon- 
stitutional. A  bill  was  immediately  filed  by  the 
attorney-general  to  restrain  the  issue  of  the  bonds, 
and  on  both  sides  the  case  was  ably  and  elaborately 
argued,  the  judges  failing  to  reach  a  conclusion. 
Finally  Judge  Sawyer  took  up  the  matter,  for  it  was 
one  in  which  he  felt  the  deepest  interest,  knowing,  as 
he  did,  that  the  building  of  the  road  depended  on  the 
result.  After  a  careful  study  of  the  statute  he  decided 
that  it  was  constitutional  and  in  this  opinion  he  was 
sustained  by  the  other  judges,  with  but  a  single  and 
that  only  a  partial  exception.  The  Central  Pacific 
was  thus  enabled  to  carry  forward  its  work  to  the 
point  where  the  government  subsidy  became  avail- 
able, and  that  work  was  never  interrupted  until  the 
last  spike  was  driven. 

On  the  day  when  the  first  pick  was  driven  into 
the  ground  at  Cape  Horn,  Judge  Sawyer  stood  on 
its  summit,  looking  down  upon  this  work,  and  for 
several  days  he  was  in  company  with  the  engineers 
when  locating  the  route  around  Donner  lake,  and 
deciding  on  which  side  of  its  waters  the  line  should 
be  extended  into  the  valley  below.  From  its  incep- 
tion until  its  completion  he  watched  with  the  deepest 
interest  the  progress  of  the  greatest  railroad  enter- 
prise of  the  age,  and  to  him  it  has  been  a  source  of 
satisfaction  that  he  was  enabled  to  contribute  to  its 
success. 


62  GOVERNMENT- CALIFORNIA. 

On  the  10th  of  May  1869,  when  the  Central  joined 
hands  with  the  Union  Pacific,  he  thus  wrote  to  his 
cousin,  the  former  president  of  Central  college,  Ohio  : 
"The  great  work  has  been  accomplished.  The  last 
rail  has  been  laid,  the  last  spike  driven,  and  the  iron 
wedding  of  the  east  and  the  west  has  this  day  been 
consummated.  We  are  now  united  by  iron  bands, 
never  more  to  be  severed.  Wonderful  achievement ! 
What  a  change  in  twenty  years  1  What  a  contrast 
between  the  weary  journeying  of  months'  duration, 
by  the  pilgrims  of  1850,  whose  jaded  animals,  'like 
a  wounded  snake,  dragged  their  slow  lengths  along,' 
and  the  lightning  speed  with  which  the  iron  horse, 
'like  swift  Camilla,  skims  o'er  the  plain.'  In  1850  the 
emigrant  to  the  Pacific  shores  required  from  four  to 
six  months  to  make  the  journey  from  the  Missouri 
river  to  Sacramento.  Now  that  trip  will  be  made  in 
four  days.  Only  six  years  have  been  occupied  in  con- 
structing that  stupendous  work,  the  transcontinental 
railroad.  Almost  at  the  very  outset  our  company  had 
to  surmount  the  Sierra  Nevada,  clad  with  almost 
perpetual  snow,  commencing  to  climb  the  foothills  of 
this  lofty  range  within  six  miles  of  the  starting  point. 
Their  iron  and  most  of  their  other  materials  had  to  be 
brought  around  Cape  Horn.  Yet  we  have  met  you 
nearly  in  the  center  of  the  continent. 

"  This  is  a  proud  day  for  our  youthful  state.  To 
her  belongs  the  honor  of  furnishing  the  men  who  had 
the  prescience  to  comprehend,  the  courage  to  under- 
take, and  the  energy  and  perseverance  to  prosecute 
the  great  work  to  its  completion.  What  the  Erie 
canal  was  to  New  York,  will  this  greater  undertaking 
be  to  the  United  States  at  large.  The  names  of 
Stanford  and  Judah,  of  Huntington,  Hopkins,  and  the 
two  Crockers  deserve  a  placo  in  history  by  the  side  of 
Clinton.  I  am  proud  also  that  several  of  them  are 
from  New  York,  and  that  Hopkins  is  a  native  of  our 
own  Jefferson  county." 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  63 

Many  times  since  the  completion  of  the  railroad,  and 
twice,  as  I  have  said,  before  that  event,  Judge  Sawyer 
visited  the  eastern  states.  The  first  occasion  was  in 
1855,  and  the  second  in  1857,  when,  as  he  thought,  he 
went  home  to  remain,  in  company  with  his  newly 
married  wife,  Mrs  Jennie  M.  Aldrich,  whose  acquaint- 
ance he  made  in  Nevada  city,  and  whose  decease 
occurred  in  1876.  Of  their  three  sons  Wellbourne, 
the  eldest,  was  killed  by  an  accident,  and  the  two 
survivors,  Prescott  and  Houghton,  were  so  named 
after  two  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Lancaster,  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Judge  Sawyer's  last  trip  to  the  east  was  in  the 
spring  of  1890,  when  he  was  accompanied  by  Hough- 
ton,  then  only  eighteen  years  of  age,  but  already  the 
inventor  and  patentee  of  an  improvement  in  cable  roads. 
Already  an  expert  electrician,  it  is  his  intention  to 
follow  in  that  department  the  profession  of  an  engin- 
eer. Nearly  half  a  century  before,  the  judge  had 
been  a  resident  of  Chicago,  and  visiting  that  city  in 
May  1890,  was  entertained  at  dinner  by  members  of 
the  bar  association,  among  them  his  former  pupil, 
Judge  James  B.  Bradwell.  By  him  a  letter  was 
addressed  to  Judge  Sawyer  some  few  months  before, 
inquiring  whether  he  had  not  at  an  exhibition  in 
early  days,  acted  the  part  of  judge  in  the  comedy 
of  the  "  Hoosier  Court.  "  From  Sawyer's  answer 
as  published  in  the  Chicago  Legal  News  I  extract 
the  following : 

"I  was  a  tutor  at  Wilson's  academy  during  the 
spring  of  1847,  and  at  the  close  of  the  term  had 
the  honor  of  presiding  over  the  '  Hoosier  Court,' 
to  which  you  refer.  At  that  time  I  had  not  the 
remotest  idea  that  I  should  ever  preside  over  anv 
other  judicial  tribunal ;  yet  it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to 
preside  as  judge  over  judicial  tribunals,  state  or 
national,  for  twenty-  eight  years — twenty  of  them 
as  United  States  circuit  judge  for  the  9th  circuit. 
Heretofore  I  have  had  four  very  large  districts  in 


64  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

my  circuit,  requiring  over  6,000  miles  of  travel  each 
year  to  hold  all  my  terms.  Now  the  new  states 
of  Montana  and  Washington  have  been  annexed, 
and  if  Idaho  should  be  admitted,  as  is  probable  next 
winter,  it  will  also  be  attached  to  my  circuit.  My 
jurisdiction  is  therefore  considerably  larger  than  it 
was  when  judge  of  the  '  Hoosier  Court.'  Indeed 
I  believe  I  have  the  largest  territorial  jurisdiction 
of  any  court  in  the  world.  I  have  jurisdiction  of 
all  offences  committed  anywhere  in  the  world  on 
the  high  seas,  as  well  as  appellate  jurisdiction  in 
cases  in  admiralty  arising  on  the  high  seas.  As  cir- 
cuit judge  for  the  district  of  Oregon,  I  have  appel- 
late jurisdiction  from  Alaska,  including  the  Behring 
sea.  As  circuit  judge  for  the  district  of  California,  I 
have  final  appellate  jurisdiction  from  the  judgments 
and  decrees  of  the  consular  and  ministerial  courts  of 
China  and  Japan,  and  often  have  appeals  from  those 
courts.  Also  final  and  appellate  jurisdiction  from  the 
consular  and  ministerial  courts  of  all  northern  Africa, 
including  Egypt  and  the  Barbary  states,  and  from 
the  same  courts  in  the  empires  of  Turkey  and  Persia. 
Quite  a  change  since  the  days  of  the  '  Hoosier 
Court.' 5: 

If  when  duty  required  it,  in  his  official  capacity, 
Judge  Sawyer  was  stern  and  inflexible,  in  private  life 
he  was  the  very  embodiment  of  kindliness  and  sim- 
plicity. One  of  the  oldest  and  most  respected  mem- 
bers of  the  judiciary,  he  was  none  the  less  respected 
among  the  chosen  circle  of  his  intimate  friends. 
While  in  that  circle  the  dignity  of  office  was  laid 
aside,  and  in  its  place  was  a  gentleness  and  affection 
that  won  the  hearts  of  all  who  knew  him,  and  called 
forth  esteem  that  ripened  almost  into  reverence.  Too 
often  is  it  the  case  that  the  majesty  of  public  station 
fades  amid  the  intimacies  of  family  life;  but  not  so 
in  his,  for  here  were  no  vices  or  weaknesses  to  be 
glossed  over  or  concealed.  Pure  as  was  his  admin- 


LORENZO  SAWYER.  65 

istration  was  also  his  private  life,  simple  and  abste- 
mious his  habits,  and  there  are  none  of  whom  it  can 
more  truly  be  said  that  he  kept  himself  unspotted 
from  the  world. 

After  a  week's  illness  Judge  Sawyer  died,  in  San 
Francisco,  on  the  7th  of  September,  1891. 

C.  B.— II.     5 


CHAPTER   III. 

GOVERNMENT-CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

ABORIGINAL  RULE — DLSCOVEKY  OF  TIEKRA   FIUME—  THE  MAYAS  AND  THE 
NAHCAH— CONQUEST  OF    DARIEN—  CONQUEST   OF    MEXICO— VICEREGAL 

EPOCH—  ^.EVOLUTIONARY     EPOCH — .JUDICIAL    A5D     MILITARY— MoDEKN 

EPOCH. 

Ix  attempting  to  trace  the  origin  of  government  in 
Central  America  and  Xew  Spain  we  encounter  numer- 
ous myths  and  contradictions.  There  seems  to  have 
been  an  empire  at  Tulan,  Tollan,  or  Tulha,  of  whose 
greatness  no  record  exists,  and  that  empire  was  rent 
asunder,  though  how  arid  when  does  riot  appear  in  the 
annals  of  the  Quiches,  who  later  became  so  powerful 
in  Guatemala.  Its  inhabitants  migrated  in  three 
great  divisions,  one  toward  the  mountains  of  Guate- 
mala, another  toward  Mexico,  arid  the  third  toward 
the  east,  by  way  of  Tepeu  and  Oilman,  which,  ac- 
cording to  a  Cakchiquel  record,  was  on  the  boundary  of 
Peteri  and  Yucatan.  Quiche  traditions  have  it,  first, 
that  in  ancient  times  there  was,  somewhere  in  Central 
America,  a  kingdom,  named  Xibalba  by  its  enemies; 
second,  that  a  rival  neighboring  power  grew  in  strength; 
third,  that  a  long  struggle,  of  several  generations  at 
least,  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Xibal ban  king- 
dom; fourth,  a  subsequent  scattering — the  cause  of 
which  Is  riot  stated,  though  evidently  civil  or  foreign 
war — of  the  formerly  powerful  nations  from  Tulan  or 
Tollan,  their  chief  city  or  province  ;  fifth,  the  identifica- 
tion of  a  part  of  the  migratory  chiefs  with  the  founders 
of  the  Quiche-Cakchiquel-Zutugil  nations,  which  were 
in  possession  of  Guatemala  when  the  Spaniards  came 


NAHUA  AND  OTHER  POWERS.  67 

there.  Tribal  and  other  traditions  seem  to  indicate 
that  Xibalba  was  the  empire  of  the  Serpents,  founded 
by  Votan  and  his  followers,  the  same  name  being 
applied  to  its  principal  city,  Nachan,  probably  identi- 
cal with  Palenque.  Tollan,  the  centre  of  nations 
which  were  successively  subjects,  allies,  rivals,  and 
conquerors  of  the  imperial  city,  may  be  conjectured 
to  have  been  Ococingo  or  Copan.  The  people  who 
defeated  the  Xibalban  leaders  are  supposed  to  have 
been  the  Trequiles,  who?  according  to  tradition,  cap- 
tured Tollan  in  Votan's  absence,  imparted  to  his  fol- 
lowers, to  whom  the  name  of  Chanes  is  applied,  new 
ideas  on  religion  and  government,  and  afterward  be- 
came a  powerful  nation,  with  Tollan  as  their  capital. 

One  of  the  migratory  bands  found  in  Mexico  a 
great  people,  probably  the  Nahuas,  who  were  the  only 
nation  that  achieved  greatness  in  Mexico  in  historic 
times.  There  are  other  traditions  tending  to  confirm 
this  theory,  which  are  also  corroborated  by  those  of 
the  Nahuas  themselves. 

Tollan,  prior  to  the  Toltec  invasion,  was  occupied 
by  several  nations,  one  of  .which  was  the  Olmecs,  the 
earliest  of  the  Nahua  powers,  during  whose  dynasty 
Quetzalcoatl  appeared.  He  is  represented  as  a  white- 
bearded  man,  venerable,  just,  and  holy,  who  taught 
by  precept  and  example  principles  much  resembling 
those  of  Christ.  But  they  were  not  generally  ac- 
cepted, and  he  left  them  disheartened. 

The  Toltecs  arrived  in  Anahuac  either  in  the  sixth 
century  or  toward  the  end  of  the  seventh,  and  between 
710  and  720  placed  themselves  under  a  Chichimec 
prince  from  Amaquemecan,  named  Chalchiul  Tlatonac. 
The  Toltec  empire  grew  and  flourished  under  a  suc- 
cession of  kings,  who  ruled  wisely.  But  in  the  reign 
of  Tecpancaltzin  and  his  bastard  son  Acxitl  state  af- 
fairs fell  into  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  men.  Vice 
prevailed  to  such  an  extent  that  even  princesses  of 
the  royal  family  were  corrupt,  and  priestesses  for- 
got their  vows  of  chastity.  Wars  were  carried  on 


68         GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

against  their  neighbors;  discontent  became  general, 
and  civil  disturbances  ensued,  together  with  invasions 
of  territory.  Famine  and  pestilence  followed ;  the 
empire  was  sundered,  and  Acxitl  disappeared.  This 
occurred  in  the  first  half  of  the  tenth  century.  Many 
Toltecs  found  refuge  in  Oajaca,  and  others  went  to 
Yucatan  and  Guatemala;  but  most  of  the  people  re- 
mained, some  of  them  maintaining  a  distinct  national- 
ity in  Culhuacan,  and  perhaps  in  Cholula. 

The  Chichimecs  in  large  numbers  under  Prince 
Xolotl,  a  son  of  their  late  King  Tlamacatzin,  and 
brother  of  the  then  reigning  soveign,  Acauhtzin,  in- 
vaded the  Toltec  empire,  and  took  possession  of 
Tollan,  the  capital.  Xolotl's  rule  was  a  prosperous 
one,  and  his  successor  was  Amacui,  who  adopted  the 
name  of  Xolotl  II.,  and  the  title  of  Huey  Tlatoani 
Chichimecatl  Tecuhtli,  or  great  lord  and  king  of  the 
Chichimecs.  In  course  of  time  this  nation  was 
divided  into  tribes  known  by  the  names  of  their  locali- 
ties, as  the  Xochimilcas,  Chalcas,  Tepanecs,  Acol- 
huas,  Tlahuicas,Tlaxcaltecs,  and  Aztecs  or  Mexicans, 
to  whom  some  writers  add  the  Tarascos,  Matlalzincas, 
Cuitlahuacs,  Mixquicas,  add  Cohuixcas.  Several  of 
these  communities  became  important  sovereignties, 
while  others  succumbed  to  their  more  powerful  neigh- 
bors and  became  mere  tributary  provinces.  In  1211 
Tlotzin  Pochotl  was  emperor,  with  his  court  at  Tena- 
yocan,  and  his  son  Quinantzin,  being  lord  of  Tezcuco, 
endeavored  to  revive  Toltec  culture.  Acolhua  II. 
reigned  over  the  Tepanecs  at  Azcapuzalco.  Culhua- 
can was  governed  by  kings,  the  last  being  Coxcoxtli, 
who  ruled  about  the  end  of  the  13th  century.  The 
Teo-Chichimecs  at  Poyauhtlan,  near  Tezcuco,  were 
the  cause  of  much  uneasiness  to  neighboring  nations. 
The  Aztecs  held  a  strong  position  at  Chapultepec ; 
but  after  a  struggle,  single-handed,  with  the  Tepanecs 
in  1240,  their  chief  Huitzilihuitl  was  compelled  to 
submit  and  to  pay  tribute. 

Tlotzin  died  in   1246,  and  was  succeeded  by  Qui- 


THE  AZTECS  AND  CULHUAS.  69 

nantzin,  who  still  held  court  at  Tezcuco,  which  was 
then  a  flourishing  city,  advanced  in  culture.  With 
his  own  dominions,  and  conquered  Huexotla  and  Coat- 
lichan,  he  formed  the  kingdom  of  Acolhuacan.  A 
great  revolution  caused  his  throne  to  totter  for  a 
time,  but  he  regained  his  power,  and  became  the 
mightiest  ruler  Anahuac  had  ever  known.  Mean- 
time the  Aztecs  or  Mexicans  had  gained  in  power. 
They  were  few  in  numbers,  but  by  their  skill  as  war- 
riors and  their  ferocity  had  come  to  be  regarded  as 
the  pests  of  the  valley.  Erelong  they  were  assailed  by 
others,  and  driven  to  Acoculco,  amid  the  reeds  of  the 
lake  ;  their  chief  Huitzilihuitl  and  many  others  being 
carried  captives  to  Culhuacan.  The  records  of  the 
Culhuas  and  Mexicans  at  this  period — early  in  the 
13th  century — down  to  the  founding  of  Tenochtitlan 
in  1325,  are  somewhat  confused.  The  latter,  after 
dwelling  for  some  time  in  Culhuacan,  because  of  their 
bloody  rites  and  turbulent  disposition,  were  driven 
out  of  the  city,  and  wandered  several  years  about  the 
lake  before  settling  where  the  city  of  Mexico  was 
afterward  built. 

Without  entering  into  details  of  the  history  of  this 
period,  I  shall  only  remark  that  while  the  different 
kings  owed  a  nominal  allegiance  to  the  emperor,  they 
paid  no  tribute,  and  each  one  ruled  his  people  with 
almost  absolute  sway.  During  the  early  days  of  the 
Mexican  monopoly,  the  emperor  was  elected  by  the 
vote  of  the  whole  people,  guided  by  their  leaders. 
Even  the  women  seemed  to  have  a  voice  in  the  elec- 
tion. Afterward,  that  duty  devolved  on  four  or  five 
of  the  chief  men  of  the  empire ;  the  kings  of  Tezcuco 
and  Tlacopan  being  also  electors,  but  with  only  hon- 
orary rank.  The  choice  was  restricted  to  the  reign- 
ing family.  In  its  first  stages  the  monarchy  was 
rather  aristocratic  than  absolute.  The  emperor  was 
expected  to  consult  with  his  council,  composed  of  ex- 
alted personages ;  but  in  his  last  days  his  will  pre- 
vailed over  all,  and  even  the  authority  of  the  courts 


70          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

had  been  reduced  to  a  dead  letter.     In  Tezcuco  and 
Tlacopan  the  direct  line  of  succession  obtained. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  century  the  Mexicans 
were  divided  into  two  nations.  Tenochtitlan  was  the 
capital  of  the  Mexicans  proper,  whose  number  had 
been  increased  by  an  influx  of  Culhuas,  and  the  re- 
mainder were  called  Tlatelulcas,  with  their  capital  at 
Tlatelulco,  the  population  of  which  had  also  been 
largely  augmented.  In  1350  Acamapichtli  II.  be- 
came the  first  king  of  Tenochtitlan,  or  Mexico. 

On  the  death  of  Quinantzin  in  1357,  the  throne  was 
occupied  by  his  eldest  son,  Ixtlilxochitl,  who  was  over- 
come by  the  armies  of  the  Tepanec  king,  Tezozomoc, 
led  by  his  son  Maxtla,  whereupon  the  former  was 
proclaimed  emperor.  This  period  in  the  history  of 
Anahuac  was  one  of  incessant  warfare,  the  incidents 
of  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  mention  in  detail. 
Among  the  most  interesting  episodes  are  the  labors 
and  sufferings  of  the  enlightened  prince,  Nezahual- 
coyotl, to  recover  the  throne  of  Acolhuacan  at  his 
father's  death.  Maxtla,  who  had  now  assumed  the 
imperial  crown,  had  treacherously  caused  the  murder 
of  Chimalpopoca  and  Tlacateotzin,  kings  of  Mexico 
and  Tlatelulco,  and  had  also  plotted  against  the  life 
of  Nezahualcoyotl.  About  the  year  1428  the  allied 
Acolhua,  Tlascaltec,  Cholultec,  Mexican,  and  Tlate- 
lulcan  forces,  under  Nezahualcoyotl,  Itzcoatl,  king  of 
Mexico,  Montezuma,  and  other  leaders,  aided  by  the 
lord  of  Tlacopan,  succeeded  after  a  campaign  of  over 
one  hundred  days  in  defeating  Maxtla's  army,  and 
capturing  Azcapuzalco,  the  Tepanec  capital,  which 
was  plundered  and  burned.  This  city  never  regained 
its  former  rank,  and  was  noted  in  later  times  as  a  slave 
mart. 

In  1431,  before  Nezahualcoyotl  had  recovered  the 
capital  of  his  kingdom,  the  Chichimec  period  comes 
to  an  end,  Anahuac  being  divided  between  the  victors, 
and  the  empire  reestablished  on  a  new  basis.  This 
was  brought  about  by  the  restoration,  with  slight 


AZTEC  MONARCHS.  71 

modifications,  of  the  ancient  Toltec  confederacy  of 
three  kingdoms,  independent  as  to  their  internal  af- 
fairs, but  allied  in  foreign  policy,  and  in  all  matters 
affecting  the  general  interests  of  the  empire,  none  of 
the  kings  being  allowed  to  take  action  without  the 
consent  of  their  colleagues.  The  three  kingdoms  thus 
formed  were,  Acolhua,  with  its  capital  at  Tezcuco, 
under  Nezahualcoyotl,  with  the  title  of  Chichimecatl 
Tecuhtli ;  the  Aztec,  with  Mexico-Tenochtitlan  for  its 
capital,  under  Itzcoatl,  bearing  the  title  of  Culhua 
Tecuhtli;  and  the  Tepanec,  with  its  capital  at  Tlaco- 
pan,  under  Totoquihuatzin,  grandson  of  Tezozomoc, 
with  the  title  of  Tepaneca  Tecuhtli.  Mexico  and 
Tezcuco  seem  to  have  been  in  all  respects  equal  in 

SDwer,  while  Tlacopan  was  far  inferior  to  either, 
ezahualcoyotl  nominally  took  precedence  in  rank, 
but  had  no  authority  over  his  colleagues,  and,  indeed, 
as  to  military  power,  was  probably  somewhat  inferior 
to  the  king  of  Mexico.  Provinces  conquered  by  the 
allied  forces,  together  with  all  spoils  of  war,  were  to 
be  divided  equally  between  Mexico  and  Tezcuco,  after 
deducting  one  fifth  for  Tlacopan.  Under  this  arrange- 
ment, wars  of  conquest  were  from  time  to  time  under- 
taken, powerful  tribes  subjugated,  and  the  Aztec 
power  spread  far  and  wide,  from  Andhuac  as  a  centre, 
until  it  came  in  contact  with  a  greater  power  beyond 
the  ocean. 

In  course  of  time  the  king  of  Mexico  came  to  be 
the  acknowledged  head  of  the  triumvirate,  and  a 
mighty  potentate,  whose  will  was  law,  none  daring  to 
oppose  him,  except  the  lords  of  Tlaxcatlan  or  Tlascala, 
and  the  monarch  of  Tarasco.  This  final  preponderance 
of  Mexico  over  Tezcuco  resulted  from  the  prowess  in 
war  and  wisdom  in  council  of  Itzcoatl's  successors, 
notably  Montezuma  I.  and  Axayacatl.  The  former 
carried  his  conquests  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  humbled 
the  Tlatelulcas,  though  they  were  still  allowed  to  re- 
tain their  sovereignty.  Axayacatl,  who  succeeded 
him  in  1469,  reduced  Tlatelulco  to  a  tributary  prov- 


72          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

ince,  and  extended  his  empire  to  the  region  of  the 
Matlalzincas.  In  a  personal  encounter  with  a  renowned 
Otomi  chieftain,  he  was  severely  wounded,  his  death 
occurring  in  1481.  During  his  reign  Anahuac  lost 
her  most  distinguished  man,  Nezahualcoyotl,  king 
of  Tezcuco,  considered  the  greatest  and  wisest  of  all 
the  Chichimec  kings.  His  chief  glory  rested,  not  so 
much  on  his  valor  and  generalship,  as  upon  his  wisdom 
and  justice  as  a  ruler,  his  learning,  and  his  advanced 
religious  ideas,  which  were  opposed  to  human 
sacrifice. 

Tlascala,  nominally  a  republic,  was  ruled  by  four 
great  lords  and  by  a  senate,  her  independence  being 
maintained  by  the  patriotism  and  valor  of  her  people, 
though  reduced  to  the  last  extremity.  Afterward,  in 
conjunction  with  the  Spaniards  and  Cholulans,  she 
rendered  efficient  aid  in  the  destruction  of  her  relent- 
less foes,  the  allied  monarchs. 

The  Tarasco  kingdom  of  Michoacan  was  ruled  by  a 
despotic  sovereign,  and  invariably  defeated  every  at- 
tempt of  the  Aztec  alliance  to  bring  it  under  subjec- 
tion. 

The  despotism  which  prevailed  throughout  Anahuac, 
rendered  still  more  unbearable  by  the  heavy  imposts 
on  conquered  foes,  and  the  displeasure  of  the  guild  of 
merchants  who  had  been  deprived  of  their  former 
rank,  had  now  created  general  discontent.  Many 
provinces  were  eager  to  shake  off  the  hated  yoke ;  the 
imperial  grasp  was  weakened,  and  the  triple  alliance 
existed  only  in  name,  Mexico  having  reduced  her 
associate  powers  to  mere  satrapies,  though  still  re- 
taining the  name  of  kingdoms.  Such  was  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Aztec  empire  in  1518,  when  Montezuma 
II.  wielded  the  imperial  sceptre.  By  his  success  in 
war  and  diplomacy  he  had  raised  himself  to  the  high- 
est pinnacle  of  greatness  ever  attained  by  a  Nahua 
monarch,  being  styled  by  his  subjects  the  Emperor  of 
the  World,  while  as  high  priest  of  Huitzilopochtli, 
the  Aztec  god  of  war,  his  gravity  and  circumspection 


BALBOA  AND   PEDRARIAS.  73 

had  won  the  favor  of  the  community.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  extravagance  knew  no  bounds,  and  the 
enormous  expenses  of  his  household,  together  with 
the  cost  of  his  incessant  campaigns,  were  felt  by  his 
people  as  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne. 

Rodrigo  de  Bastidas  sailed  along  the  South  and 
Central  American  coasts  in  1501.  Columbus  discov- 
ered the  Atlantic  coasts  of  Honduras,  Nicaragua, 
Costa  Rica,  and  the  isthmus  of  Panama  in  1502. 
Santa  Maria  de  la  Antigua  del  Darien  was  settled  in 
1510.  The  expeditions  inland  in  search  of  gold  led 
to  the  discovery  by  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa  of  the 
Pacific  ocean,  of  which,  together  with  all  the  conti- 
nents and  islands  thereon,  he  took  formal  possession 
for  the  Spanish  crown  in  1573.  Balboa  was  a  gentle- 
man by  birth,  born  in  Estremadura  in  1475.  While 
a  resident  of  Espanola,  being  beset  by  creditors,  he 
escaped  in  a  closed  cask,  out  of  which  he  emerged 
while  at  sea,  on  board  a  vessel  bound  for  the  Isthmus, 
where  he  soon  made  his  superior  qualifications  known, 
and  was  placed  in  authority ;  but  owing  to  intrigues 
at  court  he  was  displaced.  Later,  upon  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  government  of  Castilla  del  Oro,  he  was 
given  the  command  of  the  southern  region,  subordi- 
nate to  Governor  Pedrarias  Davila.  The  latter,  from 
motives  of  jealousy,  brought  forward  a  charge  of 
treason  and  insubordination  against  him,  whereupon 
he  was  beheaded  at  Darien  in  1517.  Balboa  was  the 
hero  of  the  conquest  of  the  Isthmus,  and  there  were 
few  Spaniards  who  did  not  regard  with  admiration  his 
daring  intrepidity,  chivalrous  bearing,  and  his  affable, 
generous  disposition.  With  very  different  emotions 
did  they  look  upon  the  conduct  of  Pedrarias,  who, 
throughout  his  long  career  in  America,  proved  him- 
self a  cruel  and  treacherous  ruler,  one  versed  in  all 
the  arts  of  villainy,  and  whose  inborn  depravity  of 
heart  was  illumined  by  no  gleam  of  a  better  nature. 

The  seat  of  government  was  transferred  to  Panama 


74  GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

in  1518.  The  Isthmus  was  in  after  years  under  dif- 
ferent forms  of  authority,  until  finally  divided  into 
provinces,  and  attached  to  the  viceroyalty  of  Nueva 
Granada  in  1821,  declaring  its  independence,  and 
joining  its  fortunes  with  the  republic  of  Colombia,  to 
which  it  still  belongs.  The  raids  on  the  Isthmus  by 
pirates,  and  its  importance  as  the  commercial  highway 
of  the  nations,  are  treated  of  at  length  in  my  History 
of  Central  America. 

Let  us  now  speak  for  a  moment  of  the  Mayas. 
There  were  in  Guatemala,  at  the  coming  of  the  Span- 
ish conquerors,  three  kingdoms,  which  were  of  the 
same  origin,  and  probably  sprung  from  the  numerous 
petty  sovereignties  into  which  the  empires  founded 
by  Votan  and  his  successors  in  Chiapas,  Guatemala, 
and  Yucatan  had  been  divided.  There  had  been 
another  empire,  founded  by  Zarnna  at  Mayapan,  over 
which  ruled  after  him,  first  the  Cocomes,  and  next 
the  Tutul  Xius.  Mayapan  was  plundered  several 
times,  and  finally  destroyed  in  the  15th  century  by 
the  vassal  lords,  who  revolted,  overthrew  the  Tutul 
Xiu  dynasty,  and  divided  the  country  into  petty  sov- 
ereignties, in  which  condition  the  Spaniards  found  it. 

The  three  kingdoms  above  alluded  to  as  existing  in 
Guatemala  were  that  of  the  Quiches,  whose  capital 
was  Utatlan  or  Gumareaah,  near  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent Santa  Cruz  del  Quiche ;  that  of  the  Cakchiquels, 
with  the  capital  called  Iximche  or  Patinamit,  near 
Tecpan  Guatemala,  these  two  nations  forming  one 
empire  until  about  a  century  before  the  advent  of  the 
European  conquerors.  The  third  kingdom  was  that 
of  the  Zutugils,  who  ruled  at  Atitlan,  and  had  shortly 
before  formed  a  part  of  the  Cakchiquel  sovereignty. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  great  rivalry  ex- 
isted between  the  three  kingdoms,  though  to  the 
Quiches  was  conceded  the  preeminence  in  culture  and 
political  standing. 

The  three  governments  were  apparently  identical 


JUAN  DE  GRIJALVA,  75 

in  form.  They  were  aristocratic  monarchies,  wherein 
all  high  positions,  judicial,  military,  or  sacerdotal, 
were  hereditary  and  restricted  to  noble  families.  Be- 
tween noble  and  plebeian  the  line  was  sharply  drawn. 
It  is  presumed  that  the  crown  descended  from  brother 
to  brother,  and  from  the  youngest  brother  to  the 
nephew  who  was  the  son  of  the  oldest  brother. 
The  machinery  of  government  in  the  provinces  was 
carried  on  by  the  king's  lieutenants,  and  the  king  had 
a  council  of  nobles  to  consult  with  on  state  affairs. 
Besides  the  above  divisions  there  were  several  inde- 
pendent sovereignties  ready  at  all  times  to  side  with 
the  power  from  which  they  might  expect  to  reap 
advantage. 

The  existence  of  the  Aztec  empire  first  became 
known  to  the  Spaniards  in  1517.  Diego  de  Velaz- 
quez, governor  of  Cuba  under  appointment  of  Diego 
Columbus  at  Espanola,  despatched  in  that  year  an 
expedition  of  discovery  under  Francisco  Hernandez 
de  Cordoba,  who  in  March  discovered  Yucatan.  He 
had  severe  encounters  with  the  natives,  lost  many  of 
his  party  and  received  himself  severe  wounds,  of 
which  he  died  soon  after  his  return  to  Cuba.  A  sec- 
ond expedition  under  Juan  de  Grijalva,  discovered 
the  island  of  Cozumel,  and  the  coasts  of  Campeche, 
Tabasco,  and  Ulua,  the  present  Vera  Cruz.  Grijalva 
held  friendly  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants,  from 
whom  he  obtained  much  information  as  well  as  a 
quantity  of  gold.  Grijalva  was  noted  as  an  honest 
man,  chivalrous,  courteous,  and  brave ;  but  complying 
too  strictly  with  the  orders  of  Velazquez,  failed  to 
make  any  settlements  in  the  lands  which  he  visited. 
Hence  he  was  slighted  on  his  return  to  Cuba,  and  it 
is  moreover  probable  that  his  subordinate,  Pedro  de 
Alvarado,  whom  he  had  once  reprimanded  for  diso- 
bedience, poisoned  the  governor's  mind  against  him. 

The  glowing  accounts  anent  the  newly  discovered 
regions,  and  especially  of  the  coast  of  Ulua,  filled 


76          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

Velasquez'  soul  with  ambition  to  secure  them  for  the 
Spanish  crown,  and  visions  of  glory  and  wealth  un- 
limited floated  before  his  mind.  A  third  expedition 
was  forthwith  set  on  foot,  and  Hernan  Cortes,  the 
popular  alcalde  of  Santiago  de  Cuba,  and  the  govern- 
or's compadre,  was  invited  to  aid  in  fitting  it  out, 
with  the  promise  of  the  chief  command.  Cortes  was 
then  in  the  prime  of  life,  being  thirty-three  years  of 
age,  well  built,  and  possessed  of  the  physical  and  in- 
tellectual powers  needed  for  a  difficult  and  hazardous 
undertaking.  Of  his  courage  no  doubt  was  enter- 
tained, and'  his  subsequent  career  proved  that  his 
qualifications  for  command,  however  high  the  esti- 
mate made  of  them,  fell  far  short  of  the  reality.  He 
was  of  gentle  birth,  a  native  of  Medellin  in  Estrema- 
dura,  Spain,  possessed  of  wit  and  vivacity,  astute,  dis- 
creet, endowed  with  intuitive  knowledge  of  men,  and 
ability  to  mould  them  to  his  will.  He  would  not  seek 
danger  for  danger's  sake,  but  his  resources  in  extricat- 
ing himself  from  difficulties  seemed  almost  unlimited. 
He  would  incur  great  risks  for  great  purposes,  and 
obstacles  were  then  swept  aside  like  chaff.  He  was 
ambitious  of  great  deeds,  and  considered  it  right  to 
do  whatever  his  strength  permitted ;  in  other  words, 
principle  counted  for  nothing,  albeit  he  called  himself 
a  faithful  and  devoted  servant  of  that  church  which 
was  a  representative  of  Christ.  With  good  manners 
and  fair  education,  why  should  he  not  rise  from  pov- 
erty and  comparative  obscurity  to  wealth  and  power? 
He  accordingly  accepted  Velazquez'  offer,  and  em- 
barked his  own  means  and  those  of  his  friends  in  the 
enterprise.  But  Velazquez'  mind  became  uneasy  ;  he 
began  to  distrust  Cortes,  and  the  latter  seeing  ruin 
before  him  if  he  was  displaced,  gave  the  governor  the 
slip,  and  on  the  18th  of  February,  1519,  set  sail  with 
his  expedition  for  the  coast  of  Mexico.  Though  it 
does  not  appear  that  Velazquez  was  even  recompensed 
either  by  Cortes  or  the  crown  for  his  violated  rights 
or  expenditures,  yet  he  had  little  sympathy,  popular 


MONTEZUMA  II.  77 


feeling  going  with  the  dashing  rascal,  Carte's.  The 
conqueror  of  Mexico  was  accompanied  by  men  who 
won  for  themselves  almost  as  great  renown  as  had 
been  awarded  to  their  chief,  as  warriors  and  con- 
querors ;  Pedro  de  Alvarado,  Francisco  Montejo, 
Cristobal  de  Olid,  Gonzalo  de  Sandoval,  Velazquez  de 
Leon,  Diego  de  Ordaz,  Morla,  and  others. 

The  expedition  reached  Yucatan,  where  there  was 
an  encounter  with  the  natives,  who  were  chastised  for 
their  presumption.  Emblems  of  idolatry  were  hurled 
to  the  ground,  and  the  symbol  of  Christianity  was 
erected  in  their  stead  ;  the  Spanish  captive,  Geronimo 
de  Aguilar,  was  rescued,  and  afterward  rendered  val- 
uable services.  The  people  of  Tabasco,  though  friendly 
to  Grijalva,  were  now  hostile,  and  were  brought  under 
subjection,  their  country  being  formally  taken  posses- 
sion of  in  the  name  of  the  Castilian  crown.  This 
being  accomplished,  the  fleet  proceeded  up  the  coast, 
and  anchored  off  San  Juan  de  Ulua  late  on  Thursday 
in  passion  week. 

For  some  time  preceding  the  arrival  of  the  Euro- 
peans, a  series  of  calamities,  and  occurrences  consid- 
ered as  of  bad  omen,  took  place  in  Anahuac,  filling 
the  minds  of  rulers  and  people  with  awe  and  fear. 
Their  astrologers  and  soothsayers,  as  well  as  their 
most  trusted  counsellors,  had  not  been  able  to  account 
satisfactorily  for  the  latter.  For  several  generations 
the  coming  of  Quetzalcoatl  himself,  or  of  his  brethren 
from  the  east,  had  been  expected.  They  were  sup- 
posed to  be  white,  bearded  men,  dressed  in  raiments 
of  different  color,  and  with  caskets  on  their  heads. 
Then  the  idols  would  perish,  leaving  but  one  god,  and 
the  accompanying  boon  of  the  cessation  of  all  warfare. 
Many  of  the  prodigies  above  referred  to  were  received 
by  Montezuma  and  his  people  as  the  distinct  announce- 
ment of  the  coming  of  the  gods.  The  coincidence  of 
the  visit  of  Grijalva's  expedition  worked  upon  native 
imagination,  leading  it  to  look  upon  those  strangers 
as  the  promised  deities.  Montezuma,  on  being  advised 


78  GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

of  that  visit,  was  filled  with  terror.  The  people 
received  the  tidings  with  mingled  fear  and  joy. 
Marvel-mongers  talked  of  Quetzalcoatl  and  his  pedi- 
gree, of  the  signs  and  wonders  which  had  been  wit- 
nessed, the  prodigies,  oracles,  and  occult  divinations. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  the  Spanish  chroniclers  drew 
many  of  those  marvels  from  their  own  imagination. 

The  emperor,  after  consultation  with  his  colleagues 
and  counsellors,  concluded  that  Grijalva  was  none 
other  than  the  fair-hued  Quetzalcoatl  who  had  come 
to  resume  his  throne,  as  he  had  promised  at  the  time 
of  his  departure  ;  that  resistance  would  be  in  vain, 
and  the  only  proper  course  would  be  to  tender  him  a 
friendly  reception,  and  to  conciliate  him  with  gifts. 
Orders  were  issued  to  the  court  officials  to  report 
forthwith  any  arrival  or  strange  occurrence,  and  an 
embassy  was  despatched  to  bid  the  god  welcome  in 
the  name  of  the  emperor  and  his  court,  yet  he  was  to 
be  closely  watched.  The  embassy  arrived  at  the  port 
after  Grijalva  had  departed. 

While  the  fleet  of  Cortes  was  lying  at  anchor,  it 
had  been  watched  from  the  shore  by  eager  eyes. 
Presently  two  canoes  appeared,  whose  occupants 
stepped  on  the  deck  of  the  flag-ship,  and  respectfully 
asked  for  the  Tlatoani.  Their  language  was  unknown 
to  the  rescued  Spaniard,  Aguilar.  But  from  among 
the  female  slaves  captured  in  Tabasco  stepped  one, 
who  modestly  said:  "  These  are  Mexicans,  sent  by  the 
ruler  of  the  nearest  town  to  welcome  the  white  chief, 
and  tender  his  respects.  He  would  also  know  whence 
he  comes  and  why."  This  interpreter,  named  Marina, 
had  been  baptized  in  Tabasco,  and  being  the  greatest 
female  personage  there,  had  been  given  to  Puerto- 
Carrero,  the  foremost  Spaniard  present.  Cortes  now 
fixed  his  attention  on  her,  and  appreciated  at  once  the 
service  she  had  rendered  him,  and  how  useful  she 
would  be  in  the  future.  She  was  fair  for  an  Indian, 
a  fascinating  type  of  beauty,  in  form  and  feature  per- 
fect, and  eighteen  years  of  age,  sweet  and  frank  in 


HERN  AN  CORTfiS.  79 

disposition,  though  resolute,  and  with  superior  intel- 
lectuality. A  daughter  of  a  cacique,  born  eight 
leagues  from  Goazacoalco,  she  had  been  sold  after  her 

25 

father's  death  to  Xicalanco  merchants,  who  resold  her 
to  a  cacique  of  Tabasco,  by  whom  she  was  transferred 
to  the  Spaniards.  She  afterward  had  by  Cortes  a  son, 
who  in  later  years  was  knighted,  and  known  as  Don 
Martin  Cortes.  She  finally  married  Captain  Jara- 
millo,  to  whom  she  bore  several  children.  Marina 
was  Cortes'  interpreter  and  trusted  agent  throughout 
his  campaigns  until  after  the  fall  of  Mexico. 

It  is  a  sad  story  of  villainy  on  one  side  and  affrighted 
superstition  on  the  other,  the  negotiations  between 
Montezuma  and  Cortes.  The  latter  listened  to  no 
objections  and  heeded  no  overtures  or  blandishments, 
to  deter  him  from  carrying  out  his  great  aim,  the 
conquest  of  that  vast  country  with  all  its  treasures. 
He  soon  became  informed  of  the  reigning  discontent, 
and  carried  out  his  schemes,  using  the  Totonacs,  de- 
feating the  Tlaxcaltecs,  and  afterward  accepting  them 
as  allies,  and  faithful  auxiliaries  they  were.  He  called 
at  Cholula  on  his  march  to  the  capital,  and  whilst 
there  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  incidents  of  the  con- 
quest occurred,  casting  a  black  pall  of  infamy  forever 
over  the  gallant  conqueror.  Upon  information  reach- 
ing him,  through  Marina,  that  the  Cholultecs  were 
planning  the  destruction  of  the  Spaniards,  Cortes 
summoned  the  chiefs  and  nobles  into  his  quarters,  and 
mercilessly  butchered  them,  afterward  giving  over  the 
city  to  pillage. 

As  Cortes  approached  Mexico,  Cacama,  King  of 
Tezcuco,  visited  him,  and  endeavored  to  dissuade  him 
from  going  to  the  capital ;  but  his  efforts  were  futile. 
Cacama's  own  throne  was  not  safe,  his  brother  Ixt- 
lilxochitl,  who  had  taken  away  a  portion  of  his 
dominions,  wanted  the  rest,  and  sought  Cortes'  aid. 
But  the  latter  made  promises  which  were  not  bind- 
ing, and  if  they  had  been  he  would  unscrupulously 
have  evaded  them  unless  they  served  his  purpose, 


80          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

Montezuma,  as  Cortes  was  entering  the  capital,  came 
out  with  a  splendid  array  of  his  lords  to  receive  him. 
After  an  apparently  cordial  interview,  the  emperor 
returned  to  his  palace,  and  the  strangers  and  their 
allies  were  quartered  in  Axayacatl's  buildings.  Next 
day  Cortes,  with  some  of  his  officers,  visited  the  em- 
peror, who  then  made  known  to  them  his  belief  that 
they  were  the  men  whose  arrival  had  been  predicted ; 
as  a  consequence  he  acknowledged  himself  to  be  the 
lieutenant  of  their  great  king,  to  whom  he  would 
give  of  what  he  possessed. 

From  day  to  day  Cortes  matured  his  plans,  honor- 
ing Montezuma  at  times,  at  others  subjecting  him  to 
indignities,  even  to  having  shackles  clasped  round  his 
ankles,  and  finally  transferred  him  to  the  Spanish 
quarters.  Cacama  rebelled  and  was  deposed  by  Mon- 
tezuma on  Cortes'  demand.  Ere  long  the  puppet  that 
superseded  Cacama  and  the  King  of  Tlacopan,  to- 
gether with  many  high  lords,  were  in  Spanish  clutches. 
Cortes  now  required  that  Montezuma  and  his  subjects 
should  formally  give  their  allegiance  to  the  Spanish 
crown,  which  demand  was  acceded  to  without  demur. 

Meantime  a  powerful  expedition  arrived  from  Cuba 
under  Panfilo  de  Narvaez,  to  bring  Cortes  under  sub- 
jection, but  the  latter  made  short  work  of  it,  captur- 
ing Narvaez,  together  with  his  army  and  supplies,  by 
surprise  one  night  at  Cempoala.  Thus  was  Cortes 
reenforced  and  supplied  with  abundance  of  war  mate- 
rial without  expense  to  himself.  During  his  absence 
from  Mexico,  Pedro  de  Alvarado,  who  had  been  left 
in  command,  under  the  pretext  that  the  Aztec  nobles 
were  plotting  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish  garrison, 
went  into  the  great  temple  when  thronged  with  the 
highest  nobles  and  the  gentry  of  the  land,  massacred 
them,  and  after  this  dastardly  deed  robbed  even  the 
dead  bodies.  The  Spaniards  were  assailed  by  a  mob, 
but  were  fortunate  in  reaching  their  fortified  quarters 
in  safety ;  but  not  without  Alvarado  being  seriously 
wounded,  and  one  Spaniard  and  several  allies  being 


PEDRO  DE  ALVARADO.  81 

slain.  Pedro  de  Alvarado,  whom  the  Mexicans  called 
Tonatiuh,  or  the  Sun,  was  of  the  age  of  Cortes,  a  na- 
tive of  Badajoz,  and  the  son  of  a  knight  commander 
of  the  order  of  Santiago,  whose  red  cross  of  the  order 
he  wore  in  his  days  of  poverty  at  Espanola,  though 
without  a  tittle  of  right,  ever  after  calling  himself  the 
comendador  Alvarado.  He  was  an  encomendero  in 
Cuba  when  he  went  in  Grijalva's  expedition.  Alva- 
rado was  troubled  with  neither  moral  principles,  nor 
feelings  of  humanity.  He  had  an  agile  frame,  a 
pleasing  countenance,  and  a  rather  ruddy  complexion  ; 
was  a  boon  companion,  fond  of  pleasure  and  of  money 
as  a  means  of  purchasing  enjoyment.  An  excellent 
horseman,  and  brave  almost  to  recklessness,  he  must 
be  acknowledged  to  have  been  a  gallant  soldier.  By 
a  Tlaxcaltec  woman  he  had  several  daughters,  who 
married  into  noble  Spanish  families.  After  conquer- 
ing Guatemala  he  maaried  a  titled  woman  in  Spain. 
His  death  took  place  years  after  in  an  encounter  with 
Indians  in  Mexico.  His  wife  and  several  members 
of  his  household  perished  in  the  great  rush  of  waters 
from  the  Volcan  de  Agua  of  Guatemala. 

The  Aztecs  had  risen  in  their  wrath,  and  Monte- 
zuma,  though  now  without  influence  among  his  peo- 
ple, checked  them  for  the  time.  Cortes  returned  to 
the  capital  with  his  forces,  and  hoping  to  quiet  the 
excited  populace,  prevailed  on  the  emperor  to  appear 
before  them  as  a  mediator.  While  speaking,  a  stone 
hurled  at  him,  struck  his  head,  and  soon  afterward 
he  died,  yet  more  from  grief  than  from  the  blow,  on 
the  30th  of  June,  1520.  His  almost  unbounded 
kindness  and  generosity  to  his  white  guests  had  been 
requited  with  black  ingratitude,  and  cruel  indignities 
throughout.  Thus  it  has  ever  been  with  religious 
wars  and  Christian  conquest ;  none  have  been  more 
unjust,  none  more  utterly  diabolical  and  villainous. 
Montezuma  had  several  daughters,  and  a  son  from 
whom  many  of  the  first  families  of  Spain  trace  their 
descent. 

C.B.-II.     6 


82         GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

And  now  followed  stirring  events.  The  Spaniards 
found  themselves  so  hard  pressed  that  they  were  com- 
pelled to  abandon  the  city.  Gonzalo  de  Sandoval 
was  appointed  to  lead  the  van.  He  was  a  young  offi- 
cer, some  twenty -two  years  of  age,  but  a  thorough 
soldier,  combining  valor  with  discretion  and  humanity, 
modest  in  demeanor,  and  pure  of  heart.  Cortes  said 
of  him  that  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  cavaliers  in 
the  world,  fitted  to  take  command  of  armies.  The 
events  of  the  Noche  Triste,  or  sorrowful  night,  form 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  episodes  in  history.  Only 
after  the  most  heroic  deeds  of  valor,  and  the  loss  of  a 
large  proportion  of  their  number,  did  the  shattered 
remnant  of  the  Spaniards  and  their  allies  reach  Tla- 
copan. 

Prostrated  by  the  blow,  at  Popotla  Cortes  seated 
himself  upon  a  stone,  and  wept  over  the  catastrophe. 
From  the  cavalry  were  missing  the  dashing  Lares,  the 
intrepid  Morla,  and  the  brave  Velazquez,  a  relative  of 
the  governor  of  Cuba;  but  Sandoval,  Alvarado,  and 
Olid,  and  the  ship-builder,  Martin  Lopez,  had  es- 
caped with  life.  The  interpreters,  among  them  the 
loving  Marina,  had  also  survived.  The  Spaniards  re- 
turned to  Tlaxcala,  where  they  were  received  with 
the  warmest  friendship.  The  Mexicans  committed 
the  great  mistake  of  allowing  the  Spaniards  a  respite, 
and  meanwhile  made  overtures  to  Tlaxcala,  but  the 
latter  remained  faithful  to  the  Spaniards.  In  due 
time  she  felt  the  effects  of  a  conqueror's  ingratitude. 
The  Spanish  character  is  naturally  treacherous;  the 
Indian  character  is  not  altogether  free  from  treachery; 
hence  there  is  little  wonder  that  we  find  the  Mexican 
character  of  to-day  not  wholly  reliable. 

Cuitlahuatzin  had  succeeded  Montezuma,  and  was 
the  hero  who  drove  the  Spaniards  from  the  city,  and 
inflicted  on  them  such  terrible  chastisement.  But  he 
lived  only  a  few  weeks,  falling  a  victim,  as  did  Tota- 
quihuatzin  of  Tlacopan,  to  small -pox,  which  had  been 
brought  into  the  country  by  Narvaez'  men.  Mexico 


CRISTOBAL  DE  OLID.  83 

lost  in  him  the  most  promising  of  her  sovereigns.  He 
was  succeeded  by  the  high  priest  Quauhtemotzin, 
who  continued  the  struggle  to  the  end. 

Cortes  reunited  his  forces,  and  refitted  at  Tlaxcala, 
building  a  fleet  of  brigantines,  which  he  manned,  and 
armed  with  cannon.  With  them  he  bombarded  the 
capital,  and  destroyed  the  greater  portion  of  it,  com- 
pelling the  starved  inhabitants  to  surrender,  after 
King  Quauhtemotzin  had  been  taken  prisoner,  while 
trying  to  escape.  This  was  practically  the  comple- 
tion of  the  conquest,  August  14,  1521.  Neighboring 
monarchs  and  lords,  one  after  another,  tendered  their 
submission.  In  after  years  the  territories  inhabited 
by  wild  tribes  were  conquered  by  other  men,  several 
of  whom  had  been  among  Cortes'  companions  in 
arms.  It  was  now  but  a  question  of  time,  patience, 
valor,  and  endurance. 

Soon  after  the  capture  of  the  capital  expeditions 
were  dispatched  in  all  directions  in  search  of  mines, 
and  to  explore  the  country.  Cortes  sent  Cristobal  de 
Olid  to  take  possession  of  Las  Hibueras  or  Honduras, 
which  was  accomplished;  but  Olid  threw  off  his  al- 
legiance to  Cortes,  who  at  once  sent  an  expedition  by 
sea  against  him,  and  himself  set  forth  overland  with 

O 

a  large  force.  On  his  journey  he  found  a  pretext  to 
hang  the  kings  of  Mexico,  Tezcuco,  and  Tlacopan, 
whom  he  had  taken  with  him.  Upon  his  arriving  in 
Hibueras  he  found  his  authority  restored,  Olid  having 
been  foully  murdered.  The  latter  had  been  one  of 
the  heroes  of  the  Mexican  campaign,  a  very  Hector 
in  combat.  He  was,  in  the  main,  a  good  man,  and 
while  lacking  in  sincerity  and  judgment,  was  possessed 
of  bravery,  resolution,  and  other  qualities,  which 
made  of  him  an  excellent  executive  officer,  though 
one  unfit  to  be  a  leader.  His  ambition  to  command, 
directed  by  evil  influences,  brought  about  his  downfall. 
Spanish  occupation  of  Costa  Rica  and  Nicaragua 
in  the  sixteenth  century  was  an  easy  task,  and  one 


84          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

that  does  not  require  description.  The  conquest  of 
Guatemala  and  the  present  Salvador  was  a  more  diffi- 
cult one.  The  country  had  been  visited  in  1520  and 
1521  by  epidemics,  which  caused  terrible  havoc, 
among  the  victims  being  the  kings  of  Quiche  and 
Cakchiquel,  and  the  flower  of  their  nobility.  Cir- 
cumstances were  favorable  for  the  conquest  when 
Pedro  de  Alvarado,  with  his  Spaniards,  came  in  1524 
by  way  of  Chiapas.  The  destruction  of  the  Quiche 
kingdom  was  the  result  of  a  single  battle.  The  flower 
of  its  army  was  routed  and  scattered,  and  its  king, 
Tecum  Umam,  together  with  numbers  of  the  first 
men  of  the  land,  had  perished.  Umam's  successor 
planned  to  entrap  the  Spaniards,  and  was  himself  en- 
trapped. He  and  his  nobles  were  made  to  gather 
gold  for  the  Spanish  conquerors,  and  when  they  could 
collect  no  more  were  put  to  death ;  their  capital  was 
burned,  the  whole  country  devastated,  and  the  people 
taken  in  arms,  branded  as  slaves.  This  was  in  April 
1524.  In  May  the  Cakchiquel  capital  was  taken 
without  resistance.  The  fall  of  the  Zutugils  followed, 
and  the  people  became  thoroughly  subjugated.  In 
Salvador,  then  known  as  Cuscatlan,  the  invaders  at 
first  encountered  foemen  worthy  of  their  steel,  but 
eventually  the  natives  succumbed,  and  were  declared 
traitors,  and  enslaved.  Conquest,  with  its  attendant 
oppression  and  devastation,  overspread  the  whole 
country,  and  was  followed  by  the  total  obliteration, 
both  national  and  social,  of  the  conquered  races. 

The  capital  of  Mexico  was  rebuilt  by  Cortes,  the 
hapless  race  being  forced  to  do  the  work  of  recon- 
struction, those  who  aided  the  conquerors  not  being 
excepted.  Cortes  was  appointed  governor  and  captain- 
general,  and  endeavored  to  protect  the  natives,  but 
during  his  absence  in  Hibueras  horrid  crimes  were 
perpetrated  by  those  who  usurped  the  authority.  He 
was  afterward  superseded  by  an  audiencia,  with  Nuno 
de  Guzman  as  president,  who  treated  him  with  con- 
tumely, Thus  the  treacherous  conqueror  was  made 


ANTONIO  DE   MENDOZA.  85 

to  taste  the  treachery  of  others,  and  these  of  still 
others,  villainy  succeeding  villainy  to  the  end  of  the 
chapter,  which  is,  indeed,  Mexico's  history,  with  now 
and  then  an  exception. 

Guzman  conquered  New  Galicia,  but  for  his  infa- 
mous deeds,  among  which  was  the  murder  of  the  king 
of  Michoacan,  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Spain,  where 
he  died  in  poverty.  A  second  audiencia,  under  Fuen- 
leal,  bishop  of  Santo  Domingo,  conducted  affairs  with 
more  regard  to  justice  and  decency.  At  last  the 
crown  organized  the  kingdom  of  Nueva  Espana,  or 
New  Spain,  under  the  rule  of  a  viceroy,  the  first  one 
being  Antonio  de  Mendoza,  who  assumed  office  in 

O 

October  1535.  Mendoza  was  a  man  of  noble  birth, 
of  purity  of  character,  and  administrative  ability,  but 
found  it  no  easy  task  to  put  in  order  the  machinery  of 
government.  His  relations  with  Cortes  were  at  first 
friendly,  but  soon  disagreements  arose.  Cortes  had 
been  engaged  in  explorations,  and  claimed  the  exclu- 
sive right  to  his  northern  discoveries,  whereas  Men- 
doza, who  was  himself  intent  on  conquest  and 
discovery,  threw  obstacles  in  his  way.  The  former 
had  ere  this  been  awarded  vast  estates,  together  with 

*  O 

the  title  of  Marques  del  Valle  de  Oajaca,  to  which 
were  annexed  almost  sovereign  powers.  He  had 
married  in  Spain  a  lady  of  high  rank,  and  had  by  her 
a  son,  who  was  to  inherit  his  honors  and  estates.  In 
1540  he  returned  to  Spain,  to  prosecute  his  claims, 
but  his  efforts  were  futile  ;  his  power  in  New  Spain 
was  gone,  his  prestige  lost,  and  his  petitions  to  the 
crown  were  unheeded.  Neglected  by  the  monarch 
for  whom  he  had  conquered  a  new  world,  Cortes  died 
at  Castillejo  de  la  Cuesta  on  the  2d  of  December, 
1547,  in  his  sixty-second  year.  The  second  Marque's 
del  Valle,  then  a  minor,  was  left  to  the  care  of  his 
guardian,  the  duke  of  Medina-Sidonia. 

The  viceregal  period  which  followed  presents  a  few 
good  rulers  and  many  bad  ones.  During  Mendoza's 


86          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

reign  of  fifteen  years,  provinces  were  conquered,  mines 
were  discovered  and  developed,  towns,  churches,  con- 
vents, hospitals,  and  schools  were  established;  roads, 
bridges,  and  other  public  works  were  constructed ;  and 
agriculture  and  other  industries  were  developed. 
Mendoza's  services  in  New  Spain  were  almost  indis- 
pensable, but  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Peru,  after 
the  suppression  of  Gonzalo  Pizarro's  revolt,  called  for 
a  man  of  superior  executive  ability,  and  Mendoza  was 
selected  -as  the  man  for  the  occasion.  The  second 
viceroy,  Luis  de  Velasco,  also  enjoyed  a  long  tenure 
of  office,  and  ably  carried  out  the  measures  so  efficiently 
inaugurated  by  his  predecessor. 

Soon  after  Velasco's  death,  in  1564,  during  the  tem- 
porary rule  of  the  audiencia,  much  discontent  was  ex- 
hibited by  the  encomenderos  because  of  the  new  laws 
enacted  by  the  crown  for  the  liberation  of  the  Indians. 
The  Marques  del  Valle,  with  his  wife  and  brothers, 
had  been  for  some  time  living  in  Mexico,  in  almost 
regal  state,  thus  giving  umbrage  first  to  Velasco  and 
later  to  the  audiencia.  The  marquis,  his  brothers, 
and  the  brothers  Avila  were  accused  of  treason,  and 
thrown  into  prison.  Martin  Cortes,  Marina's  son  by 
the  great  conqueror,  was  subjected  to  torture,  and  the 
brothers  Avila  and  others  beheaded.  The  marques 
was  afterward  kept  a  prisoner  in  Spain  during  many 
years,  and  so  heavily  mulcted  as  to  be  almost  reduced 
to  poverty.  The  tyrannies  and  cruelties  committed 
by  the  authorities  on  this  occasion  present  a  picture 
revolting  to  human  nature. 

Nevertheless,  the  viceroys  were  at  least  as  well- 
disposed  and  efficient  as  the  masters  whom  they 
served ;  some  of  them,  such  as  Mendoza,  the  Velas- 
cos,  father  and  son,  Moya,  Bucareli,  Revilla-Gigedo, 
the  younger,  and  a  few  others  being  excellent  rulers. 
On  the  other  hand  the  government  of  the  Marques 
de  Branciforte,  brother-in-law  of  the  famous  Godoy, 
was  a  true  specimen  of  Spanish  villainy.  During  his 
rule  Mexico  was  plundered  as  she  had  never  been 


THE  MARQUES  DE  BRANCIFORTE.  87 

plundered  before.  Arriving  in  1794  he  began  to 
amass  money  by  all  and  any  means,  and  after  spend- 
ing his  term  in  riot  and  debauchery,  carried  away  on 
his  departure  in  1798  about  five  millions  of  dollars, 
the  greater  portion  of  which  he  claimed  as  belonging 
to  himself.  But  whether  good  or  bad,  as  rulers,  the 
viceroys  labored  to  cement  the  colonial  system,  that 
is,  they  made  the  country  a  servile  tributary  not  only 
to  the  crown,  but  to  a  monopoly  of  Spanish  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers.  The  policy  to  which  they 
were  forced  to  submit  was  no  less  suicidal  than  con- 
temptible. The  Spaniard  born  in  the  mother  coun- 
try, would  not  have  the  Spaniard  born  in  America, 
and  much  less  the  Indian,  know  how  many  elements 
of  wealth  his  country  possessed,  nor  would  he  allow 
other  nations  to  learn  the  source  of  America's  opu- 
lence. The  colonies  were  kept  isolated  from  the  en- 
tire world,  except  from  Spain,  and  even  to  a  great 
extent  from  one  another. 

The  viceregal  period  presents  but  few  events  worthy 
of  note,  as  compared  with  the  stirring  scenes  and 
struggles  presented  in  the  history  of  European  coun- 
tries. Now  and  then  was  an  Indian  or  slave  upris- 
ing, a  riot  quickly  quelled,  and  that  was  all ;  the 
shackles  of  tyranny  and  religion  were  well  riveted. 
Discontent  came  at  last,  however,  so  that  espionage 
and  intrigue  kept  the  official  circle  on  the  alert,  always 
apprehensive  of  something  that  might  shatter  the 
unstable  fabric.  Among  the  Creole  class  was  wide- 
spread disaffection,  caused  mainly  by  the  preferences 
given  to  frivolous  adventures  from  the  mother  coun- 
try. The  same  selfish  policy  observed  by  the  Span- 
ish government  toward  Mexico  was  displayed  in  Cen- 
tral America,  with  this  difference,  that  the  latter 
being  poor  could  not  be  plundered  to  the  same  extent. 
The  five  sections  were  ruled  by  their  respective  gov- 
ernors, appointed  by  the  crown,  though  subordinate 
to  the  president  and  audiencia  of  Guatemala,  In 
fl?60)the  constitution  of  the  audiencia  was  reformed 


88          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

The  presidents  and  captain-generals  were  placed  on 
the  same  footing  as  those  of  Mexico;  as  governors 
they  were  independent  of  the  oidores,  while  the  latter 
in  their  judicial  functions  could  not  be  interfered 
with  by  the  former.  During  the  period  of  Spanish 
domination  intellectual  and  moral  stagnation  pre- 
vailed— while  of  material  development  there  was  but 
little.  The  functions  and  policy  of  rulers  were  de- 
termined by  the  crown  and  the  council  of  the  Indies ; 
the  duties  of  subjects  were  well-defined.  The  grasp 
of  the  mother  country  became  weak  toward  the  end, 
though  the  Creoles  were  not  aware  of  it.  But 
troubles  beset  her  at  last,  of  which  the  Americans 
availed  themselves  to  shake  off  the  fetters  of  an  irk- 
some dependency. 

With  the  opening  of  the  19th  century  begins  the 
revolutionary  period  of  Spain's  American  colonies. 
Mexico  was  in  a  disturbed  condition  during  the  first 
decade ;  and  though  the  Creoles  perhaps  helped  to 
fan  the  flame,  the  quarrel  was  at  first  between  the 
Spaniards,  from  old  Spain,  and  their  rulers.  The 
troubles  were  caused  originally  by  the  mother  coun- 
try, at  that  time  invaded  by  the  armies  of  Napoleon, 
who  had  placed  his  brother  Joseph  on  the  Spanish 
throne. 

The  hatred  felt  by  the  natives  toward  the  Span- 
iards was  now  as  marked  as  on  the  day  that  Cortes 
seized  their  capital.  The  feeling  which  prompted  a 
conspiracy  in  Valladolid  soon  spread  throughout  the 
country,  and  in  Queretaro  it  found  an  echo.  The 
corregidor  Dominguez,  who  had  been  ill-treated  by 
the  viceroy,  manifested  his  resentment,  and  he  soon 
found  that  he  had  many  sympathizers.  A  revolution- 
ary plan  was  adopted,  which  met  with  the  support  of 
the  army  captains  Allende,  Aldama,  and  Arias,  the 
licentiates  Laso  and  Altamirano,  and  the  rector  of  the 
town  of  Dolores,  Miguel  Hidalgo  y  Costilla.  Cir- 
cumstances made  the  last  narneid  the  leader  of  the 


HIDALGO.  89 

ever-memorable  revolution  of  1810.  Hidalgo  was  a 
man  of  high  attainments,  sagacious,  as  well  as  pa- 
triotic. After  assuming  the  pastorship  of  Dolores  in 
Guanajuato,  he  turned  his  attention,  at  spare  mo- 
ments, to  agriculture,  particularly  the  cultivation  of 
the  vine,  and  to  industrial  pursuits,  which  were  bene- 
ficial to  his  Indian  parishioners,  devoting  himself  also 
to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  science.  He  was  kind- 
hearted  and  generous,  and  at  the  same  time  brave  and 
resolute,  while  his  courtesy  and  affability  won  for 
him  friends  wherever  he  was  known.  His  Indian 
flock  had  learned  to  look  on  him  as  a  father  and  pro- 
tector. Allende  and  Aldaina  were  captains  of  ac- 
knowledged ability  and  courage,  and  possessing, 
moreover,  no  slight  influence  among  the  community. 
Their  plan  having  been  betrayed  to  the  authorities, 
Allende  hastened  to  Dolores  and  made  known  the 
treachery  to  Hidalgo.  This  was  on  the  night  of 
September  15th.  The  curate  at  once  summoned  his 
parishioners,  and  told  them  that  the  time  had  arrived 
to  strike  a  blow  for  their  rights  and  liberties,  and  that 
he  would  be  their  leader.  His  words  were  received 
with  shouts  of  "  Viva  Nuestra  Senora  de  Guadalupe  ! 
Muera  el  mal  gobierno  !  Mueran  los  gachupines  !  " 
Forthwith  the  European  Spaniards  residing  in  the 
town  and  its  vicinity  were  made  prisoners,  and  all  the 
weapons  were  secured.  This  was  the  Grito  de 
Dolores,  the  cry  which  inaugurated  the  long  struggle 
culminating  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  Spanish 
domination  in  Mexico.  After  a  few  victories,  accom- 
panied with  brutal  excesses,  the  patriots  under  Hi- 
dalgo's immediate  command,  received  a  crushing  blow 
on  the  16th  of  January,  1811,  at  the  hands  of  the 
royalist  commander,  General  Calleja,  on  the  bridge  of 
Calderon,  near  Guadalajara.  Hidalgo  was  then  de- 
prived of  the  command  by  Allende  and  his  colleagues, 
and  kept  under  surveillance,  without  even  being  con- 
sulted as  to  further  action.  But  it  was  soon  found 
that  the  patriot  army  could  not  hold  together,  and 


90          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

the  leaders  must  seek  safety  in  flight.  Hidalgo,  Al- 
lende,  and  others,  set  forth  for  the  United  States 
frontier,  but  were  arrested  in  Coahuila  by  a  lieuten- 
ant-colonel called  Elizondo,  who  turned  traitor  to  the 
cause  he  had  been  serving.  The  prisoners  were  tried 
some  months  later  at  Chihuahua,  condemned  to  death 
and  shot.  Whatever  Hidalgo's  errors  may  have  been 
as  a  military  leader,  to  him  is  due  the  credit  of  hav- 
ing given  the  first  impulse  toward  independence;  for 
which  he  has  been  awarded  the  well-earned  title  of 
father  of  his  country. 

For  the  sake  of  union  Ignacio  Rayon,  one  of  Mex- 
ico's noblest  patriots,  organized  a  council  of  govern- 
ment at  Zitacuaro,  which,  in  the  hope  of  gaining 
influence,  recognized  King  Fernando  VII.  of  Spain 
as  sovereign  of  Mexico,  though  declaring  a  separation 
from  the  mother-country.  Meantime,  Jose  Maria 
Morelos,  also  a  curate,  and  a  former  pupil  of  Hidalgo, 
had  been  carrying  on  a  series  of  effective  operations 
in  Michoacan.  Morelos  was  about  forty-five  years 
old  at  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution,  and  compared 
with  his  former  master,  might  have  been  called  illit- 
erate ;  but  he  possessed  sufficient  education  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  his  position.  He  was  no  dreamer, 
but  more  of  a  man  of  the  world  than  Hidalgo,  firmness 
and  energy  being  prominent  traits  in  his  character. 
His  voice  in  battle  was  like  the  roar  of  thunder,  and 
he  thought  no  more  of  danger  in  action  than  when 
reciting  prayers  in  a  cloister.  Together  with  great 
military  ability,  he  possessed  marvellous  instinct  and 
foresight,  united  with  sound  common  sense,  which 
won  him  renown,  not  only  as  the  greatest  military 
commander  of  his  time,  but  as  a  political  leader.  No 
personal  motive  influenced  him  in  his  valiant  struggle 
for  liberty,  and  he  preferred  to  all  honors  the  title  of 
"servant  of  the  nation."  He  has  been  accused  of 
cruelty,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  he  even  inflicted 
severe  punishment  except  by  way  of  necessary  exam- 
ple. Such  was  the  man  who  now  assumed  leadership 


MORELOS.  91 

of  what  has  been  called  the  second  revolution.  Sup- 
ported by  Matamoros  and  the  Bravos,  he  entered  the 
valley  of  Mexico  early  in  1812,  passing  near  the  cap- 
ital. He  fortified  Cuauhtla,  and  was  besieged  by  the 
royalist,  Calleja  ;  but  he  repulsed  every  assault  during 
several  months,  until  compelled  by  hunger  to  make 
his  escape.  Later  he  captured  Oajaca  and  Acapulco, 
the  latter  after  a  long  siege,  which  has  been  imputed 
to  him  as  a  serious  blunder.  Military  operations  pro- 
gressed ;  but  meantime,  in  Morelos'  absence  at  Aca- 
pulco, the  royalist  recuperated,  and  had  time  to 
arrange  the  plan  of  a  campaign.  A  formal  declara- 
tion of  independence  was  made  by  a  congress  at 
Chilpancingo,  and  Morelos  was  named  generalissimo. 
Owing  to  an  unfortunate  misunderstanding  on  the 
part  of  some  of  the  revolutionary  chiefs  he  was  left 
unsupported  in  Michoacan,  and  was,  in  consequence, 
routed  by  Llano  and  Iturbide.  From  this  time  dis- 
asters followed  in  quick  succession.  Matamoros  and 
Miguel  Bravo  were  captured  and  shot,  and  the  same 
fate  befell  Morelos  near  Tesmalaca  as  he  was  cover- 
ing the  retreat  of  the  congress.  One  month  later, 
on  the  22d  of  December,  1815,  was  executed  this 
most  able  commander  and  unflinching  patriot,  and 
with  him  disappeared  the  hopes  of  the  revolutionists. 
The  dissolution  of  congress  by  the  patriot  chief, 
Terdn,  only  served  to  bring  on  a  greater  disunion,  and 
all  military  operations  became  reduced  to  the  insignif- 
icant efforts  by  guerrilla  parties  scattered  through  a 
vast  extent  of  country,  and  commanded  by  Teran  in 
Tehuacan,  Guerrero  in  the  region  now  bearing  his 
name,  Rayon  and  Bravo  in  Michoacan,  Torres  in 
Guanajuato,  and  Victoria  in  Yera  Cruz.  Still  another 
effort  was  made  by  a  young  Navarrese  chieftain,  named 
Espoz  y  Mina,  who  brought  with  him  a  number  of 
volunteers  from  the  United  States.  He  was  at  first 
successful,  but  was  finally  surprised,  captured,  and 
shot.  Mina  was  as  generous  as  he  was  brave  and  ef- 
ficient as  a  leader.  Finally  all  the  insurgent  strong- 


92         GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

holds  were  taken,  and  in  a  short  time  these  chieftains 
either  surrendered  or  were  killed,  with  the  exception 
of  Victoria,  who  concealed  himself  in  the  woods,  and 
Vicente  Guerrero,  who  maintained  with  a  small  party 
in  the  mountains  of  Guerrero  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence. Finally,  Agustin  Iturbide,  a  native  of 
Michoacan,  and  a  colonel  in  the  royalist  army,  who 
had  been  one  of  the  most  efficient  officers  in  the  war 
against  the  insurgents,  and,  indeed,  their  most  cruel 
foe,  accepted  an  invitation  to  head  a  revolution  from 
the  Spaniards  and  upper  clergy,  who  were  displeased 
with  the  action  of  the  cortes  in  curtailing  their  privi- 
leges and  establishing  liberal  laws.  Iturbide  deceived 
Viceroy  Apodaca,  who  gave  him  the  command  of  a 
force  to  escort  a  large  treasure  to  the  coast,  and  com- 
missioned him  to  march  against  the  insurgents  in 
arms.  Thereupon,  throwing  off  the  mask,  he  seized 
the  treasure,  agreed  with  Guerrero  to  proclaim  inde- 
pendence, and  finally  issued  a  pronunciamiento  at 
Iguala  on  the  24th  of  February,  1821,  with  the  sup- 
port of  his  army,  which  assumed  the  name  of  Ejercito 
Trigarante,  as  defenders  of  the  three  guaranties,  al- 
luding to  the  three  cardinal  principles  of  the  plan. 
These  were  the  support  of  the  Roman  catholic  reli- 
gion, to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  form  of  worship, 
with  preservation  of  all  the  privileges  of  the  clergy ; 
the  independence  of  Mexico  under  a  limited  monarchy; 
and  intimate  alliance  between  Europeans  and  Ameri- 
cans, with  equal  rights  for  citizens  and  public  em- 
ployes, whether  born  in  Europe  or  Mexico.  This 
plan  was  supported  by  all  the  royalist  officers,  and 
afterward  accepted  by  Viceroy  Juan  O'Donoju,  who 
arrived  in  July  of  the  same  year.  It  was  agreed  that 
the  crown  of  the  new  empire  was  to  be  tendered  to 
Fernando  VII.,  or  if  he  declined  it,  to  a  Spanish 
prince  of  his  selection.  But  the  Spanish  government 
refusing  to  recognize  this  arrangement,  the  provisional 
government  of  Mexico,  of  which  Iturbide  was  the 
head,  declared  their  independence;  the  populace,  on 


ITURBIDE.  93 

the  18th  of  May,  1822,  proclaimed  him  emperor,  and 
he  was  crowned  under  the  title  of  Agustin  I.  But 
his  reign  was  short.  Mainly  through  his  imperious 
bearing  toward  the  national  congress,  a  revolution 
broke  out,  in  February  1823,  headed  by  Antonio 
Lopez  de  Santa  Anna  and  others,  and  about  two 
months  later  Iturbide  abdicated,  and  was  banished 
from  the  country.  After  a  brief  residence  in  Italy, 
he  was  induced  by  false  representations  to  return,  and 
secretly  landing  at  Soto  la  Marina,  was  captured  and 
shot,  on  the  19th  of  July,  1824.  His  remains  were 
buried  at  Padilla,  whence  they  were  removed  by  order 
of  congress,  and  interred  with  solemn  obsequies  in  the 
cathedral  of  Mexico,  on  the  24th  of  October,  1838. 
Though  credit  has  been  awarded  to  Iturbide  as  the 
final  liberator  of  Mexico,  his  name  should  not  be 
coupled  with  those  of  such  true  patriots  as  Hidalgo, 
and  Morelos,  Guerrero  and  Victoria,  Bravo  and  Mina. 
Mexico  was  now  independent ;  the  Spanish  forces 
were  disbanded,  or  had  left  the  country,  though 
Spaniards  held  possession  of  the  cattle  of  San  Juan 
de  Ulua  at  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz,  until  they  were 
forced  to  surrender  to  the  Mexican  General  Barragan 
in  November  1825.  Spain  made  an  attempt  to  re- 
take the  country,  for  which  purpose  an  expedition 
under  Brigadier  Barradas  landed  near  Tampico  in 
July  1829  ;  but  the  invaders  were  after  some  fight- 
ing forced  by  Santa  Anna  and  Teran  to  surrender  in 
September  of  the  same  year,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Panuco  river. 

Central  America  had,  during  the  Spanish  domina- 
tion, made  several  efforts  in  the  early  years  of  the 
present  centurjr  to  shake  off  the  yoke ;  but  they 
proved  futile,  and  only  entailed  suffering  upon  those 
who  engaged  in  them.  But  in  1822  independence 
was  proclaimed  without  bloodshed,  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities acquiescing  in  the  movement.  When  on 
the  point  of  adopting  republican  institutions,  the  sev- 


94         GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

eral  provinces,  through  intrigue  and  chicanery  on  the 
part  of  Captain-general  Gainza,  and  the  so-called  aris- 
tocrats, found  themselves  annexed  to  the  empire  of 
Iturbide,  and  so  remained  until  by  the  downfall  of 
that  ruler,  they  again  secured  their  autonomy,  and. 
the  opportunity  of  constituting  themselves  an  inde- 
pendent nation.  Chiapas,  however,  which  had  for- 
merly been  a  part  of  the  presidency  and  captain-gen- 
eralcy  of  Guatemala,  preferred  to  remain  a  dependency 
of  Mexico. 

In  both  countries  federal  republics  were  organized. 
The  constitution  of  the  Estados  Unidos  de  Mejico 
was  promulgated  on  the  4th  of  October,  1824,  and 
that  of  the  Estados  Federados  de  Centro  America  on 
the  22d  of  November  of  the  same  year.  Prior  to 
such  promulgation  the  two  republics  had  been  under 
the  rule  of  triumvirates.  The  first  constitutional  au- 
thorities in  Mexico  were  Guadalupe  Victoria,  presi- 
dent, and  Nicolas  Bravo,  vice-president.  Both  de- 
serve the  highest  praise  for  devotion  to  their  country. 
Victoria's  real  name  was  Juan  Felix  Fernandez,  but 
during  the  war  of  independence  he  changed  it,  taking 
as  his  first  name  Guadalupe,  in  honor  of  the  virgin 
patroness  of  Mexico,  and  as  his  surname  that  of  Vic- 
toria, in  commemoration  of  a  victory  over  the  Span- 
iards. After  all  his  efforts  for  independence  had 
proved  futile,  he  hid  in  the  mountains,  clothed  in  rags 
and  gaunt  with  hunger.  It  was  then  that  he  ac- 
quired the  habit  which  he  retained  long  afterward,  of 
making  only  one  meal  every  twenty-four  or  thirty- 
six  hours.  Victoria  was  an  honest,  unassuming  citi- 
zen, amiable,  and  kind-hearted,  of  undoubted  courage, 
and  a  true  lover  of  freedom.  Ambition  never  entered 
his  heart ;  his  abnegation  was  notorious  ;  his  country 
was  his  idol ;  and  though  he  had  filled  the  highest 
offices,  he  died  poor,  and  was  buried  at  the  public  ex- 
pense. His  administration  showed  lack  of  firmness, 
and  was  marked  by  failure,  but  for  the  latter  he  can- 
not be  blamed,  since  it  was  caused  by  the  party  spirit 


NICOLAS  BRAVO,  95 

which  for  many  years  rendered  futile  the  efforts  of 
Mexico's  best  and  ablest  patriots  to  consolidate  her 
liberal  inststutions. 

Nicolas  Bravo  was  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  and 
efficient  officers  of  the  war,  and  in  the  years  preceding 
the  independence  suffered  imprisonment  as  a  felon  for 
serving  his  country.  On  one  occasion  he  had  in  his 
power  three  hundred  prisoners,  some  of  them  officers 
from  Spain,  others  wealthy  hacendados.  At  this 
time  his  father  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  royalists 
and  shot  in  cold  blood.  Bravo  called  up  his  prison- 
ers. He  told  them  what  had  been  done  to  his  father, 
and  then  he  set  them  free,  saying,  "Go,  find  your 
vile  master,  and  henceforth  serve  him,  if  you  can." 
He  was  afterward  a  member  of  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment, and  in  later  years  president  of  the  republic, 
though  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  took  part  in 
revolutionary  movements. 

Thus  was  Mexico  from  the  first  scourged  by  inter- 
necine war.  She  adopted,  moreover,  an  expensive 
system  of  government,  raised  large  loans,  and  ex- 
pended money  without  stint.  The  consequence  was, 
that  before  the  end  of  her  first  president's  term,  she 
was  heavily  in  debt,  her  treasury  was  exhausted,  her 
credit  had  disappeared,  and  her  industries  were 
paralyzed. 

The  second  president  was  the  revolutionary  hero 
Vicente  Guerrero,  a  man  of  the  lowly  race  called 
castas,  disqualified  by  law,  custom,  and  prejudice  for 
political  office,  and  yet  by  his  fortitude  and  eminent 
patriotism  he  won  for  himself  the  proudest  position  in 
the  gift  of  the  republic.  His  elevation  to  the  presidency 
had  been  a  triumph  of  the  popular  party,  and  this 
was  not  forgiven  him  by  the  enemies  of  democratic 
institutions.  His  strict  maintenance  of  federal  insti- 
tutions, when  his  enemies  were  bent  on  his  destruc- 
tion, hastened  his  downfall,  and  he  was  overthrown 
by  an  army  of  conservatives  led  by  General  Anas- 
tasio  Bustamante,  who  bad  been  a  royalist  when 


96          GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

Guerrero  was  fighting  for  his  country's  freedom.  He 
attempted,  though  unsuccessfully,  to  recover  his 
authority,  being  defeated  near  Texas  in  August,  1830. 
The  government  of  Bustamante,  among  whose  min- 
isters were  Alaman  and  Facio,  clamored  for  his  death, 
and  paid  a  large  sum  to  an  Italian  shipmaster  to  be- 
tray him  into  their  hands.  He  was  taken  to  Oajaca, 
charges  were  preferred  against  him  before  a  court- 
martial,  and  the  great  patriot  who,  setting  aside  his 
own  democratic  preferences  had  cooperated  with  Itur- 
bide  to  secure  Mexico's  independence,  was  condemned 
to  death,  and  shot  at  Chilapa  on  the  14th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1831;  after  being  compelled  to  listen  on  his  knees 
to  his  death  sentence.  A  singular  coincidence  was 
this  of  Iturbide  and  Guerrero,  two  men,  who  though 
of  opposite  political  views  united  to  accomplish  their 
country's  independence,  being  publicly  executed  by 
order  of  the  same  political  party.  One  of  Guerrero's 
memorable  acts,  while  clothed  by  the  national  con- 
gress with  dictatorial  powers,  during  the  war  of 
Barradas'  invasion  in  1829,  was  his  decree  abolishing 
slavery  in  Mexico. 

The  constitution  of  1824  contained  many  excellent 
clauses ;  but,  unfortunately,  was  not  well  adapted  to 
a  country  where  the  masses  were  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious. The  clergy,  whose  privileges  were  curtailed, 
and  whose  revenues  were  diminished,  were  of  course 
discontented,  and  ready  for  anything  that  would  re- 
store their  power.  They  naturally  sympathized  with 
the  conservatives.  The  army  was  demoralized,  the 
majority  of  its  officers  being  always  disposed  to  serve 
the  party  offering  promotion  and  lucrative  positions. 

In  1833  General  Santa  Anna,  who  had  hitherto 
claimed  a  foremost  rank  among  the  liberals  on  the 
strength  of  his  military  services  again  appeared  in 
the  field  and  overthrew  Bustamante,  being  afterward 
elected  president,  with  Valentine  Gomez  Farias  as 
vice-president.  Santa  Anna,  pleading  sickness,  re- 
mained on  his  estate,  and  in  April  of  this  year  the 


VICE-PRESIDENT  FARIAS.  97 

vice-president  assumed  the  executive  office  ad  interim. 
Farias,  who  is  considered  as  the  first  champion  of 
reform  and  progress,  was  a  native  of  Guadalajara, 
and  had  won  repute  as  a  physician  before  he  entered 
the  political  arena.  Unfortunately  for  his  aspirations 
he  was  of  an  impatient  temperament,  and  did  not 
allow  time  for  his  measures  to  become  fully  developed. 
With  his  friends'  cooperation,  however,  he  gave  a 
great  impulse  to  the  reforms  initiated  by  himself  in 
1831,  and  adopted  by  the  government  in  1833-4. 
He  was  a  democrat  at  heart,  not  ambitious  of  honors 
or  wealth,  moderate  and  unpretentious,  averse  to 
bloodshed,  ever  disposed  to  serve  his  country,  and  to 
merit  the  good-will  of  his  countrymen.  His  ad- 
vanced ideas  were  but  little  understood  by  the  men 
around  him,  but  he  struggled  to  preserve  the  princi- 
ples of  the  constitution,  which  were  constantly  being 
violated  and  outraged.  He  directed  his  efforts  against 
the  privileged  classes,  maintaining  that  the  civil  au- 
thority should  always  be  above  the  military,  and  striv- 
ing to  prevent  the  interference  of  the  clergy  in  secular 
affairs.  He  improved  the  system  of  public  instruc- 
tion, and  endeavored  to  abolish  the  death  penalty  for 
political  offences,  as  a  principle  of  public  policy.  Pro- 
scriptive  measures  he  discountenanced,  though  his 
reforms,  affecting  such  powerful  opponents  as  the 
clergy  and  army,  caused  violent  opposition.  Mean- 
while Santa  Anna  watched  the  situation  from  his  re- 
tirement, and  when  he  thought  the  opportunity  had 
arrived  for  taking  the  reins  of  government  into  his 
own  hands,  he  did  so,  though  surrendering  them 
again  to  Farias  a  few  days  later.  The  country  was  in 
a  most  disturbed  condition,  and  Santa  Anna  preferred 
to  keep  himself  aloof  until  he  could  appear  as  the 
preserver  of  peace  and  order.  He  was  finally  invited 
to  become  the  leader  of  a  reactionary  movement  with 
unrestricted  powers,  and  after  completing  his  arrange- 
ments returned  to  Mexico  and  removed  Gomez  Farias 
from  power  at  a  time  when  the  reform  measure  di- 

C.  B.— II.    7 


98         GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

rected  against  the  two  most  powerful  classes  in  the 
commonwealth  was  producing  the  utmost  agitation. 

Farias  has  been  blamed  by  the  liberal  party  for  his 
want  of  spirit  on  the  occasion ;  and  yet  it  is  probable 
that  his  inaction  was  caused  merely  by  the  dislike  of 
being  suspected  of  personal  ambition,  and  of  being 
accused  of  unconstitutional  measures.  To  his  hesita- 
tion must  be  attributed  the  overthrow  in  1834  of  all 
that  had  been  done  in  the  line  of  reform,  and  the  tri- 
umph of  a  violent  reactionary  movement,  which  re- 
stored power  to  the  clergy  and  the  army.  The 
reactionists  deprived  him  even  of  the  vice-presidential 
office,  and  in  after  years  he  suffered  persecution  and 
imprisonment  for  his  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
federalism. 

The  reign  of  centralism  was  soon  afterward  in- 
augurated. Disorder  followed  disorder,  one  party 
securing  the  preponderance,  to  be  soon  superseded  by 
another.  The  nation  was  harassed  by  a  two  years' 
war  with  the  United  States,  resulting  in  the  loss  of  a 
large  portion  of  her  most  valuable  territory.  Peace 
prevailed,  but  at  short  intervals,  and  every  interest 
was  paralyzed.  At  last,  in  March  1853,  Santa  Anna 
assumed  the  government,  and  established  unqualified 
centralism,  with  himself  as  dictator.  He  removed 
from  office  every  man  who  had  any  time  been  op- 
posed to  him,  suppressed  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
increased  the  army,  and  pleased  the  rabble  by  recall- 
ing the  Jesuits.  His  pretensions  and  vanity  were 
displayed  by  his  assuming  the  title  of  most  serene 
highness,  and  reviving  the  order  of  Guadalupe,  which 
had  been  originally  instituted  by  Iturbide.  Among 
his  other  measures  may  be  mentioned  the  sale  to  the 
United  States  of  the  Mesilla  valley,  which  includes 
the  present  territory  of  Arizona,  the  proceeds  being 
squandered  in  the  furtherance  of  his  own  ambitious 
designs.  In  1854,  however,  the  plan  of  Ayutlo,  pro- 
claimed by  General  Jean  Alvarez  and  Ignacio  Co- 
monfort,  led  to  his  discomfiture,  and  henceforth  his 


SANTA  ANNA.  99 

name  disappears  from  the  political  annals  of  the  re- 
public. 

Antonio  Lopez  de  Santa  Anna  was  a  native  of 
Jalapa  in  the  state  of  Vera  Cruz,  where  for  many 
years  his  father  had  held  office  as  sub-delegate.  When 
fifteen  years  of  age  he  adopted  the  military  profession, 
and  for  his  services  during  the  Spanish  invasion  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  general  of  division.  In  the 
revolutionary  war  he  first  served  as  a  royalist,  and 
joined  Iturbide's  fortunes,  winning  his  favor,  and  after- 
ward causing  his  overthrow.  While  in  command  of 
the  Mexican  armies  during  the  war  with  the  United 
States,  he  was  defeated  at  every  encounter,  and  yet 
he  was  probably  the  most  competent  general  of  his 
time.  His  revolutionary  career  is  well  known  ;  sev- 
eral times  he  filled  the  roles  of  president  and  dictator, 
and  as  often  found  himself  in  exile.  Though  he  had 
every  opportunity  to  do  his  country  service,  and  to  win 
the  affection  of  his  compatriots,  he  proved  himself  as  a 
soldier  faithless  to  his  superiors ;  as  a  statesman,  void 
of  principle,  a  mere  political  weathercock,  with  self-ag- 
grandizement for  his  sole  motive.  As  a  ruler  he  was 
an  unmitigated  tyrant,  and  in  private  life  he  was  no- 
toriously immoral.  Proclaimed  a  traitor  at  last,  he 
was  deprived  of  his  honors;  his  property  was  confis- 
cated; and  though  permitted  in  his  old  age  to  return 
to  Mexico,  his  last  years  were  passed  in  obscurity, 
isolation,  and  poverty.  After  his  decease,  which  oc- 
curred on  the  21st  of  June,  1876,  but  few  persons  of 
note  accompanied  his  remains  to  the  grave.  A  pen- 
sion asked  for  by  his  widow  was  refused  by  congress, 
and  his  loss  caused  no  regret,  save  to  his  own  personal 
friends. 

With  the  downfall  of  Santa  Anna  came  the  triumph 
of  the  liberal  reform  party,  by  whom  was  elected  as 
president  General  Alvarez,  an  old  soldier  of  the  revo- 
lutionary war,  who  served  afterward  in  the  trigarante 
army,  and  later  aided  Bravo  and  Guerrero  to  over- 
throw Iturbide's  empire.  During  his  brief  adminis- 


100       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

tration  many  wholesome  measures  were  adopted, 
among  them  being  the  celebrated  ley-Juarez,  restrict- 
ing the  jurisdiction  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  abol- 
ishing the  privileges  of  the  clergy  and  army.  Alvarez 
was  not  an  ambitious  man,  and  disliking  the  associa- 
tions of  the  capital,  as  well  as  its  climate,  resigned  the 
executive  office  in  favor  of  Ignacio  Comonfort.  Not- 
withstanding the  political  somersault  of  which  he  was 
afterward  accused,  the  latter  is  entitled  to  credit  for 
the  impulse  which  he  gave  to  the  liberal  cause.  He 
was  a  native  of  Puebla,  a  retired  militia  colonel,  and 
ex-collector  of  customs,  who  had  been  removed  from 
office  under  circumstances  which  unjustly  cast  a  stain 
on  his  character.  In  person  he  was  somewhat  portly, 
and  of  imposing  mien,  with  massive  but  regular  feat- 
ures, to  which  marks  of  small-pox  gave  a  repulsive 
expression  that  disappeared  on  closer  scrutiny.  In 
disposition  he  was  amiable,  conciliatory,  and  always 
ready  to  forgive  injuries.  Brave  and  cool  in  danger, 
and  firm  of  purpose,  he  was  slow  to  resolve,  but  quick 
in  carrying  out  resolutions  once  adopted.  Generous 
and  open-handed,  both  in  public  and  private  life,  he 
was  a  man  of  simple  habits,  plain  and  unassuming,  but 
with  a  certain  gravity  of  deportment  which  repelled 
undue  familiarity 

At  first  Comonfort  began  to  temporize,  the  victo- 
rious liberal  party  having  already  become  divided.  His 
first  cabinet  was  composed  of  men  of  a  high  order  of 
talent  and  integrity,  and  imbued  with  liberal  ideas. 
Disturbances  occurred  in  Puebla  and  elsewhere,  openly 
promoted  by  the  clergy  and  their  conservative  allies, 
but  the  revolutionists  were  defeated,  and  order  was 
reestablished,  though  peace  was  by  no  means  assured. 

While  the  congress  was  discussing  the  draft  of 
a  new  constitution,  which  embodied  a  declaration  of 
rights,  based  on  principles  which  were  recognized  by 
the  most  enlightened  nations,  the  accord  between  that 
body  and  the  president,  which  for  a  time  had  been 
interrupted,  was  to  a  great  extent  restored,  through 


BENITO  JUAREZ.  ,    101 

the  ratification  by  the  legislative  chamber  of  the  "ley 
de  desamortizacion  civil  y  eclesiastica,"  enacted  by  the 
executive  on  the  25th  of  June,  1856,  and  afterward 
known  as  the  ley-Lerdo,  from  the  name  of  the  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury,  Miguel  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  by 
whom  it  was  framed.  Lerdo  was  an  able  statesman, 
and  of  the  purest  type;  even  the  arch-conservative, 
Arrangoiz,  remarking,  "  persona  de  mucho  talento,  y 
en  materias  de  hacienda,  el  hombre  mas  capaz  que  ha 
tenido  Mejico:  pero  anticatolico."  The  partisans  of 
the  old  system  under  which  three  fourths  of  the 
landed  property  in  Mexico  had  been  vested  in  mort- 
main, opposed  the  law.  Among  others,  Archbishop 
La  Gaza  energetically  protested  against  it,  displaying 
such  hostility  that  he  was  ordered  to  leave  the  coun- 
try, though  he  was  noted  as  a  man  of  remarkable 
piety,  and  had  striven  earnestly  and  not  in  vain  to 
promote  the  cause  of  public  education. 

The  new  constitution  of  February  5,  1857,  took 
effect  in  the  following  September,  and  together  with 
it  an  electoral  law  in  sixty-seven  articles.  The  oppo- 
sition of  the  clergy  to  this  fundamental  law  was 
violent  in  the  extreme,  and  as  a  consequence  all  the 
bishops  were  banished  from  the  country,  among  them 
being  Labastida,  the  present  archbishop  of  Mexico, 
who  figured  as  a  regent  during  the  projected  empire 
of  Maximilian.  But  a  terrible  storm  was  impending, 
whereby,  in  December  1857,  Comonfort  was  ousted 
from  the  presidency,  and  compelled  to  leave  the  re- 
public, returning  ]ater  to  serve  in  the  field  against  his 
country's  enemies,  but  only  to  lose  his  life  in  an  am- 
buscade laid  for  him  by  the  conservatives. 

The  counter-revolution  took  place  at  Tacubaya, 
and  thereby  the  conservatives,  now  under  General 
Felix  Zuloaga,  again  found  themselves  in  power  at 
the  capital.  But  all  was  not  to  be  as  they  desired. 
Benito  Juarez,  as  president  of  the  supreme  court, 
became  after  Comonfort's  departure,  president  ad  in- 
terim of  the  republic,  according  to  the  provisions  of 


102       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND   MEXICO. 

the  constitution,  and  after  the  victory  of  the  conser- 
vatives, established  his  headquarters  at  Vera  Cruz, 
the  strength  and  position  of  this  port,  with  its  sea- 
girt fortress,  making;  it  a  favorable  point  from  which 

O  O  i- 

to  direct  the  operations  of  the  liberal  forces.  Though 
few  in  numbers,  the  Juarists  had  won  the  confidence 
of  the  people  by  promising  release  from  the  oppression 
of  land-owners  and  of  the  clergy. 

Benito  Juarez  was  a  native  of  Oajaca,  and  though 
at  twelve  years  of  age  unable  to  speak  the  Spanish 
language,  he  afterward  received  a  liberal  education  at 
the  state  capital,  becoming  a  distinguished  professor 
and  lawyer,  and  as  governor  of  Oajaca,  to  which  office 
he  was  twice  elected,  and  also  as  member  of  congress, 
won  the  respect  and  esteem  of  his  countrymen.  For 
his  adherence  to  democratic  principles  in  their  fullest 
sense,  he  suffered  persecution  at  the  hands  of  the 
dictator,  Santa  Anna,  and  was  sent  into  exile,  from 
which  he  returned  after  the  revolution  of  1855,  when 
he  was  appointed  Alvarez'  minister  of  justice.  After 
Cornonfort  assumed  the  presidential  office  he  became 
by  popular  election,  chief  justice  of  the  supreme 
court.  In  March  1857  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
conservative  force,  together  with  the  members  of  his 
cabinet,  but  refused  to  make  any  concessions,  and  was 
finally  rescued. 

Juarez  was  a  man  of  less  than  medium  height,  of 
dark  copper  color,  his  features  being  those  of  a  pure 
Zapotec  Indian,  with  black,  piercing  eyes,  and  a 
manly  expression  of  countenance.  Open  and  com- 
municative in  matters  not  demanding  reserve,  he  was 
reticent  in  state  affairs,  a  man  who  reflected  and  de- 
liberated long  before  taking  action.  In  temperament 
he  was  somewhat  lymphatic,  though  full  of  energy 
and  force,  prompt  in  action,  and  cool  and  collected 
even  amid  the  greatest  peril.  In  his  public  life  he 
was  never  accused  of  corrupt  practices,  and  his  private 
life  was  equally  pure.  He  devoted  his  leisure  mo- 
ments to  study,  especially  of  history,  and  was  himself 


MIGUEL  MIRAMON.  103 

the  author  of  several  works,  among  them  being  a 
compilation  from  the  maxims  of  Tacitus  ;  but  though 
his  attainments  were  great,  he  was  never  known  to 
parade  them. 

Failing  to  receive  the  support  of  congress,  Zuloaga 
was  set  aside,  and  in  his  place  was  chosen  the  young 
general,  Miguel  Miramon,  who  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
six  thus  found  himself  at  the  head  of  the  nation  and 
of  the  nation's  armies.  Miramon,  though  of  French 
descent,  was  a  native  of  the  city  of  Mexico.  He  was 
of  medium  height,  of  handsome  presence,  and  of  pol- 
ished address,  with  an  open  brow  and  searching  look  ; 
a  man  of  intellect,  ambitious,  brave,  resolute,  and 
loyal  to  his  friends.  He  was  educated  at  the  military 
school,  and  in  1847  fought  at  the  battles  of  Molino  del 
Rey  and  Chapultepec.  Afterward  he  saw  much  ser- 
vice, and  was  acknowledged  as  an  able  commander, 
attaining  in  1858  the  rank  of  general  of  division. 

A  bloody  war  ensued,  which  lasted  for  four  years. 
Fortune  for  a  time  favored  the  conservatives,  owing 
to  the  superior  ability  of  their  leaders,  Miramon, 
Marquez,  and  Mejfa ;  but  the  triumph  of  popular 
rights  came  at  last,  though  not  until  the  country  had 
lost  thousands  of  valuable  lives,  and  its  resources  were 
almost  exhausted.  Many  excesses  were  committed 
by  both  parties,  but  the  most  disgraceful  of  all  was 
the  execution,  on  the  llth  of  April,  1859,  by  order  of 
Miramon  or  Marquez,  or  both,  of  a  number  of  medical 
students  who  had  come  from  the  city  of  Mexico  to 
tend  the  wounded  after  the  battle  of  Tacubaya,  fought 
on  the  same  day,  and  in  which  the  liberals,  under 
Degollado,  were  defeated.  Marquez  afterward  claimed 
that  he  acted  under  peremptory  orders,  and  Miramon 
denied  that  his  order  embraced  non-combatants.  Be 
it  as  it  may,  eleven  youths,  while  engaged  in  their 
work  of  mercy,  were  foully  murdered,  and  the  conser- 
vatives, together  with  their  ecclesiastical  allies,  must 
be  held  answerable  for  this  infamous  deed.  The  last 
battle  of  the  war  was  fought  between  ei^rlit  and  ten 


104       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

in  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  December,  1860,  on  the 
heights  of  San  Miguel  Calpulalpan,  between  the  con- 
stitutionalists under  Jesus  Ortega,  arid  the  conserva- 
tives under  Miramon.  The  latter  were  utterly  defeated, 
and  thereupon  the  conservative  government  collapsed, 
and  its  leaders  fled,  or  w^ent  into  hiding.  But  before 
abandoning  the  capital  they  divided  among  them- 
selves $140,000,  remaining  out  of  a  large  sum  which 
had  been  taken  by  force  from  the  British  legation. 

In  January  1861  President  Juarez  entered  the  cap- 
ital amid  the  plaudits  of  his  long-suffering  adherents, 
and  with  the  advice  of  his  ministry  forthwith  adopted 
the  measures  needed  for  the  emergency  of  the  occa- 
sion. The  liberals  were  now  divided  into  two  parties, 
which  may  be  termed  the  constitutionalists  and  re- 
formists, the  former  abiding  by  the  constitution  of 
1857,  and  the  latter  being  In  favor  of  radical  amend- 
ments, while  a  third  faction,  sustained  by  the  clergy, 
was  somewhat  in  sympathy  with  the  conservatives. 
Even  in  the  cabinet  there  was  dissension,  caused 
mainly  by  financial  questions,  among  them  being  the 
suspension  of  payments  on  the  national  debt,  and  the 
necessity  for  forced  loans,  and  an  increase  of  taxation. 

While  thus  occupied,  the  government  soon  became 
aware  that  the  end  of  Mexico's  troubles  was  not  yet, 
and  that  she  had  not  indeed  seen  the  worst.  The 
conservatives  and  clergy  would  not  submit  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  constitution,  nor  to  the  laws  passed 
by  Juarez,  which  deprived  the  latter  of  their  privi- 
leges and  estates,  and  abolished  convents,  nunneries, 
and  religious  societies  of  every  description.  Under 
these  laws  the  power  of  the  clergy  for  interference  in 
secular  affairs  was  obliterated,  and  the  priests  must 
in  future  confine  themselves  to  the  sphere  of  their 
legitimate  duties.  To  this  they  would  not  submit, 
and  resolved  to  continue  the  fight,  and,  moreover,  to 
bring  to  their  aid  the  intervention  of  foreign  powers. 

The  war  broke  out  afresh,  and  ere  long  a  tripartite 
convention  was  concluded  at  London  in  October  1861 


JUAN   N.  ALMONTE.  JOS 

between  France,  England,  and  Spain,  to  interfere  in 
the  affairs  of  Mexico,  to  aid  her  people — meaning,  of 
course,  the  conservatives  and  clergy — and  to  establish 
there  a  stable  government.  The  pretext  for  this  in- 
tervention was  to  bring  about  a  reliable  adjustment 
and  liquidation  of  the  debts  due  the  subjects  of  those 
countries,  together  with  a  redress  of  grievances. 

The  allied  forces  landed  at  Vera  Cruz,  the  French 
contingent  being  most  numerous,  and  took  up  posi- 
tions in  the  neighborhood  of  the  city.  Negotiations 
were  opened  with  the  government  of  Juarez,  culmina- 
ting in  a  convention  concluded  at  La  Soledad,  which 
would  have  brought  to  a  friendly  settlement  all  ques- 
tions pending  between  the  European  powers  and  the 
republic.  But  this  was  not  what  the  French  designed. 
The  Spanish  and  British  commissioners,  upon  detect- 
ing in  their  French  colleagues  ulterior  views  not  in 
harmony  with  the  London  convention,  cut  themselves 
loose,  and  after  a  satisfactory  understanding  with  the 
Mexicans,  retired  with  their  forces.  In  these  nego- 
tiations Juarez'  minister,  Manuel  Doblado,  proved 
himself  a  most  able  diplomatist.  The  French  com- 
missioners, in  barefaced  violation  of  the  convention  of 
La  Soledad,  proceeded  to  carry  out  their  plans  single- 
handed.  General  Lorencez  attempting,  on  the  5th  of 
May,  1862,  to  take  Puebla  by  assault,  though  his 
attack  was  repelled  by  the  Mexicans  under  General 
Zaragoza.  Some  months  later  a  powerful  French 
army  arrived,  under  General  Forey,  whose  standard 
was  j  oined  by  the  Mexican  conservatives  and  clericals. 
Thereupon  Forey  organized  a  provisional  government, 
with  the  conservative,  Juan  N.  Almonte,  as  dictator. 
This  personage  was  a  reputed  son  of  the  revolutionary 
leader  Morelos,  and  undoubtedly  had  Indian  blood  in 
his  veins.  He  was  educated  in  the  United  States, 
and  became  a  general,  though  he  saw  little  service  in 
the  field.  In  his  political  career  he  held  diplomatic 
positions  in  some  of  the  most  important  capitals  of 
Europe,  and  for  a  time  was  minister  of  war.  During 


106       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

the  French  intervention  he  was  president  of  a  re- 
gency of  three  constituted  by  Forey,  and  when  Arch- 
duke Maximilian  accepted  the  crown  of  Mexico, 
represented  him  as  regent  until  his  arrival,  when  he 
was  apointed  grand  master,  and  later  ambassador 
to  Paris,  where  he  resided  till  his  death,  in  1869. 

Forey,  after  completing  his  preparations,  laid  siege 
to  Puebla,  which  surrendered  only  after  the  Mexican 
garrison,  commanded  by  Jesus  Ortega,  had  exhausted 
all  its  resources.  Next  followed  his  march  and  unop- 
posed entry  into  the  capital,  which  had  been  hastily 
abandoned  by  the  Juarez  government.  The  French 
now  developed  their  plan — one  in  accord  with  the 
wishes  of  the  conservatives  and  clergy,  and  approved 
by  Napoleon  III. — to  establish  a  monarchy,  with  a 
prince  of  his  family,  or  of  his  selection,  as  emperor. 
The  crown  was  tendered  to  Archduke  Maximilian, 
who,  after  some  formalities,  accepted  it,  with  the  en- 
dorsement of  England  and  the  tacit  approval  of  Aus- 
tria, his  mission  being,  as  the  French  put  the  matter, 
to  substitute  an  empire  for  the  tyranny  of  Juarez. 
In  May  1864  the  archduke,  with  his  wife,  Charlotte 
of  Belgium,  landed  at  Vera  Cruz,  and  thus  Mexico 
was  once  more  placed  under  despotic  rule. 

Meanwhile  the  war  was  still  in  progress,  the  liberals 
gradually  losing  ground,  and  the  French  occupying 
the  most  important  states,  while  Juarez  and  the  mem- 
bers of  his  cabinet  fled  from  place  to  place,  and  finally 
took  refuge  at  El  Paso,  on  the  frontier  of  the  United 
States.  But  his  opportunity  came  at  last.  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  while  engaged  in  civil 
war,  had  found  it  expedient  to  observe  a  neutral  pol- 
icy;  but  at  its  conclusion,  in  1865,  it  demanded  of 
Napoleon  III.  that  he  should  withdraw  his  forces 
from  Mexico,  threatening  in  case  of  refusal  to  send 
against  them  a  powerful  American  army.  Napoleon 
saw  at  once  that  he  must  comply  with  this  demand, 
even  though  Maximilian  was  left  unsupported.  The 
French,  under  Marshal  Bazaine,  then  began  their 


MAXIMILIAN.  107 

march  to  the  coast,  and  took  no  further  action  in 
Mexican  affairs. 

Ferdinand  Maximilian  Joseph  of  Hapsburg,  arch- 
duke of  Austria,  was  educated  as  a  naval  officer,  soon 
attaining  a  high  rank  in  that  branch  of  the  Austrian 
service.  In  1857  he  was  made  governor  of  the  Lom- 
bardo-Venetian  kingdom,  and  in  the  same  year  mar- 
ried the  princess  Charlotte,  a  daughter  of  Leopold  I. , 
king  of  the  Belgians.  In  1859  he  retired  into  private 
life,  the  policy  observed  in  his  administration,  which 
won  him  the  regard  even  of  the  Italians,  then  so  bit- 
terly hostile  to  Austria,  being  considered  too  liberal 
by  his  government,  which  at  that  time  was  one  of  the 
most  retrogressive  and  despotic  in  Europe. 

After  the  departure  of  the  French  army,  it  was 
apparent  to  all  impartial  observers  that  his  abdication 
had  become  a  necessity,  but  he  deemed  it  dishonorable 
to  forsake  the  country  while  there  was  a  strong  party 
devoted  to  his  interests,  the  safety  of  which  depended 
on  his  presence  in  Mexico. 

In  February,  1867,  he  withdrew  with  the  bulk  of 
his  forces  to  Queretaro,  where  he  was  ere  long  sur- 
rounded by  the  republican  army  of  General  Escobedo, 
and  sustained  a  siege  of  several  weeks.  It  was  at 
last  arranged  that  the  emperor  should  attempt  to  cut 
his  way  out  through  the  enemy's  lines,  but  before 
this  effort  was  made,  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and 
Queretaro  was  captured,  together  with  all  the  garri- 
son. Maximilian  and  his  generals,  Miramon  and 
Mejia  were  subsequently  tried  by  court-martial,  and 
condemned  to  death.  No  effort  was  spared,  even  by 
the  American  government,  to  induce  the  president  to 
spare  his  life;  but  all  proved  unavailing,  and  on  the 
19th  of  June,  1867,  he  was  executed  with  Miramon 
and  Mejia  at  the  Cerrodo  las  Companas.  His  re- 
mains, which  were  at  first  refused  by  Juarez  to  the 
Austrian  government,  were  finally  delivered  to  Ad- 
miral Tegethoff,  at  the  request  of  the  Hapsburg 
family,  and  conveyed  to  Vienna  for  interment.  As  to 


108       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

his  wife,  all  the  world  knows  the  story  of  her  mourn- 
ful fate.  Returning  to  Europe  to  remonstrate  with 
Napoleon  and  bespeak  the  pope's  assistance,  all  with- 
out success,  she  became  hopelessly  insane  through 
accumulated  misfortunes,  and  there  lived  her  living 
death. 

During  his  brief  reign  Maximilian  had  alienated 
the  support  of  the  church  by  confirming  Juarez'  de- 
crees respecting  their  privileges  and  estates,  to 
which  it  seems  his  wife  had  contributed  by  her  con- 
temptuous remarks  upon  the  absurd  pretensions  of  the 
clergy  He  had  endeavored  to  win  over  the  liberals 
to  his  side,  whereby  he  lost  a  large  portion  of  the 
conservative  support,  and  if  certain  confidential  ]et- 
ters,  said  to  have  been  written  by  him  are  not  apocry- 
phal, he  did  not  act  honestly  and  fairly  toward  some 
who  had  rendered  him  good  service.  Though  brave 
and  chivalrous  he  was  somewhat  of  a  hypocrite,  and 
though  he  entertained  admirable  theories,  he  wanted 
the  tact  and  firmness  to  carry  them  out;  he  also 
lost  much  time  in  dictating  trivial  and  inapplicable  laws. 
One  of  them,  however,  was  of  grave  import,  in  which 
he  outlawed  all  liberals  fighting  for  their  country's 
freedom,  and  treated  them  as  highwaymen.  That 
law  afterward  sealed  his  own  doom. 

While  Maximilian  was  besieged  at  Queretaro,  stir- 
ring events  occurred  elsewhere.  General  Porfirio 
Diaz  took  Puebla  by  storm  on  the  2d  of  April,  1867. 
Marquez  was  subsequently  defeated  by  Diaz,  who 
finally  besieged  the  capital,  and  compelled  it  to  sur- 
render at  discretion  on  the  20th  of  June.  A  few 
weeks  later  Juarez  and  his  ministers  entered  the  capi- 
tal and  the  work  of  reconstruction  was  be^un.  Cer- 

O 

tain  of  his  measures  gave  umbrage  to  many,  and 
revolutionary  movements  broke  out,  which  were  for- 
tunately suppressed  But  the  attitude  of  Juarez  in 
again  permitting  his  own  reelection  to  the  presidency, 
which  he  had  already  held  for  fourteen  years,  alien- 
ated from  him  a  large  number  of  constitutionalists. 


LERDO  DE  TEJADA.  109 

A  revolution  broke  out,  of  which  Porfirio  Diaz  was 
chosen  as  leader,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  the 
government  troops  under  Rocha  were  on  the  point 
of  crushing  the  rebellion,  when  the  death  of  Presi- 
dent Juarez,  on  the  18th  of  July,  1872,  brought  the 
war  to  an  end.  The  voice  of  passion  became  hushed ; 
the  nation  mourned  the  loss  of  her  chief  magistrate 
and  most  illustrious  son,  the  champion  of  national  in- 
dependence, liberty,  and  democratic  principles.  If 
he  committed  errors,  they  have  been  forgotten  and 
forgiven;  while  the  memory  of  his  virtues,  his 
patriotism,  and  his  invaluable  services  alone  survives. 
His  remains  were  interred  with  the  highest  honors, 
a  magnificent  monument  has  been  placed  over  them, 
and  the  aniversary  of  his  death  is  yearly  observed  as 
one  of  national  mourning 

Sebastian  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  the  chief  justice  of  the 
supreme  court,  became  under  the  constitution  presi- 
dent ad  interim  of  the  republic,  and  being  recognized 
by  all,  the  war  came  to  an  end.  When  the  next 
presidential  election  took  place,  Lerdo  was  elected  by 
a  considerable  majority,  and  the  choice  received  the 
endorsement  of  the  people.  Sebastian  Lerdo  was  a 
brother  of  Miguel  Lerdo,  who  drew  up  the  famous 
law  of  which  I  have  already  spoken.  He  was  a  stu- 
dious man,  and  an  accomplished  jurist;  had  been  one 
of  Juarez'  ministers  during  the  war,  and  the  people 
considered  him  entitled  to  credit  for  most  of  the  good 
work  of  Juarez'  administration.  It  was  also  a  matter 
for  general  satisfaction,  that  a  civilian  and  an  able 
man  should  be  called  peaceably  to  fill  the  executive 
chair.  He  shared  in  the  applause  bestowed  on  the 
constitutional  amendments  adopted  by  congress  in 
1873,  under  which  church  and  state  became  inde- 
pendent of  each  other,  religious  tolerance  was  pro- 
claimed ;  marriage  declared  a  civil  contract ;  religious 
corporations  were  forbidden  to  possess  real  estate  or 
mortgages ;  and  enforced  labor  was  abolished. 

Confident  of  success,  Lerdo  favored  the  former  par- 


110       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

tisans  of  Juarez,  and  showed  hostility  to  those  of  Diaz, 
known  as  porfiristas.  In  1874  he  began  to  exhibit 
designs  looking  toward  a  reelection,  using  his  in- 
fluence to  elect  his  partisans  in  the  various  states. 
The  result  of  this  was  a  general  discontent,  which 
finally  culminated  in  a  revolution,  under  a  plan  pro- 
claimed at  Tuxtepec,  by  General  Hernandez  in  Jan- 
uary 1876.  The  revolutionists,  who  had  recognized 
Porfirio  Diaz  as  their  chief,  accused  the  government 
of  violations  of  the  constitution  and  laws,  and  of  con- 
verting the  popular  suffrage  into  an  engine  to  further 
Lerdo's  personal  ambition.  The  list  of  charges 
embraced  other  items,  and  in  fact,  all  that  the  govern- 
ment had  done,  or  failed  to  do,  was  held  to  be  inju- 
rious to  the  nation.  It  was  further  demanded  in  the 
plan  that  an  addition  should  be  made  to  the  constitu- 
tion, to  forbid  the  reelection  of  the  president  and  state 
governors  for  the  ensuing  term.  The  revolutionists 
were  triumphant,  and  Lerdo  sought  safety  in  flight, 
embarking  for  the  United  States.  The  executive 
office  having  thus  become  vacant,  was  claimed  by 
Jose  Maria  Iglesias,  then  president  of  the  supreme 
court.  He  accordingly  organized  a  government  and 
appointed  a  cabinet,  but  as  he  refused  to  conform  to 
the  demands  of  the  revolutionists,  he  soon  discovered 
the  uselessness  of  further  effort.  He  had  agreed  to 
constitute  a  cabinet  of  porfiristas,  but  this  proposal 
was  made  too  late.  Diaz  had  already  made  arrange- 
ments which  could  not  be  set  aside,  and  was  unwill- 
ing to  jeopardize  the  results  obtained  by  surrendering 
the  situation  to  a  rival  who  had  merely  submitted  to 
the  force  of  circumstances.  Iglesias  and  his  ministers, 
Francisco  Gomez  del  Palacio,  Joaquin  M.  Alcalde, 
and  Guillermo  Prieto,  all  of  whom  were  men  of  the 
highest  standing  in  the  republic,  the  two  first  as 
jurists,  and  the  last  as  a  litterateur  and  financier,  em- 
barked at  Manzanillo  on  the  17th  of  January,  1877, 
for  San  Francisco,  California.  Diaz  was  then  recog- 
nized as  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  republic. 


PRESIDENT  DIAZ.  Ill 

The  provisional  government  endeavored  to  recon- 
cile opposing  elements  with  a  true  spirit  of  concilia- 
tion. Shortly  afterward  congress  announced  the 
election  of  Diaz  to  the  presidency  by  an  almost  unani- 
mous vote  in  nearly  200  districts;  but  notwithstanding 
his  conciliatory  policy,  the  partisans  of  Lerdo  main- 
tained an  armed  opposition  ;  Escobedo,  the  victor 
over  Maximilian,  in  Coahuila,  Amador  in  Tamaulipas, 
and  Alvarez  in  the  south.  The  first  was  taken 
prisoner  in  1878,  conveyed  to  Mexico,  and  released  on 
parole ;  Amador  was  slain,  and  Alvarez  listened  to 
persuasion,  and  desisted.  The  government  found  it- 
self enabled  at  last  to  devote  its  whole  attention  to 
advancing  the  general  interests  of  the  country.  The 
treasury  was  repleted  and  reforms  were  introduced 
without  resortino1  to  the  obnoxious  methods  of  de- 

O 

priving  retired  officers,  widows,  and  orphans  of  their 
pensions. 

To  fill  the  next  presidential  term  Manuel  Gonzalez 
was  chosen,  and  for  the  succeeding  one  Porfirio  Diaz, 
who  again  assumed  the  reins  of  office  on  the  1st  of 
December,  1884,  being  elected  for  a  third  term, 
almost  without  opposition,  in  1888. 

As  the  Mexican  constitution  did  not  permit  a  re- 
election for  the  ensuing  term,  Diaz  had  remained  for  a- 
while  in  private  life,  but  was  soon  urged  to  accept  a 
position  in  his  successor's  cabinet,  which  he  filled  for 
a  short  period.  He  was  afterward  chosen  governor 
of  Oajaca.  In  1883  he  married  Carmen  Rubio,  the 
daughter  of  one  of  Mexico's  most  distinguished  sons. 
Manuel  Romero  Rubio,  an  able  jurist  and  statesman, 
had  been  a  firm  supporter  of  President  Lerdo,  and 
had  marked  out  a  line  of  policy  which  the  latter  dis- 
regarded, pursuing  a  course  which  ended  in  his  down- 
fall. Though  disapproving  of  Lerdo's  late  practices, 
he  would  not  forsake  him  in  his  trouble,  choosing 
rather  to  share  his  exile,  yet  presently  returning  to 
his  country. 


112       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

The  five  Central  American  divisions,  Guatemala, 
Honduras,  Salvador,  Nicaragua,  and  Costa  Rica, 
constituted  themselves  in  1824  a  federal  republic, 
with  the  name  of  Estados  Federados  de  Centro 
America,  though  the  republic  had  but  an  ephemeral 
existence,  owing  to  the  intrigues  of  the  self-styled 
aristocrats  and  the  clergy,  who,  like  those  of  Mexico, 
would  tolerate  no  innovations  by  which  their  privi- 
leges and  emoluments  might  be  curtailed.  Incessant 
disturbances  prevailed  throughout  the  land,  save  in 
Costa  Rica,  until  finally  there  appeared  in  the  field 
one  Rafael  Carrera,  first  as  the  champion  of  the  oli- 
garchists,  and  later  as  their  master.  This  man  was 
of  Indian  descent,  base-born,  and  of  a  violent  and  iras- 
cible disposition,  bold,  resolute,  and  persevering.  He 
had  been  a  common  servant,  a  private  soldier,  and 
finally  a  swine-dealer  at  Mataquescuintla.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  public  career  he  was  about  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  and  lived  in  the  district  of  Mita, 
where  he  had  much  influence  among  the  lower  class 
of  Indians,  which  was  due  partly  to  his  connections, 
and  the  force  of  circumstances,  but  also  to  his  bravery 
and  capabilities.  He  was  extremely  ignorant,  but  he 
possessed  at  the  same  time  natural  talents  and  re- 
markable shrewdness.  While  the  priests  were  mas- 
ters, he  was  a  devotee  and  tool,  but  when  he  became 
powerful,  they  and  their  aristocratic  allies  were  made 
to  bow  low  before  him,  and  receive  with  Christian 
meekness  his  insults  and  abuse.  They  were  then 
under  "el  caite  de  Carrera."  He  was  repeatedly  de- 
feated, but  never  annihilated,  and  on  the  1st  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1838,  marched  into  the  city  of  Guatemala  at 
the  head  of  a  rabble  of  10,000  Indians,  men,  women, 
and  children,  becoming  virtually  master  of  the  situa- 
tion. 

From  that  time  Carrera  was  a  power  in  the  land, 
though  he  was  for  the  moment  prevailed  on,  for  a  sum  of 
money,  together  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  and 
the  office  of  comandante  of  Mita,  to  retire  witli  his 


MORAZAN.  113 

horde  of  robbers.  The  ex-president  of  the  federation, 
Francisco  Morazan,  who  had  declined  the  dictatorship 
tendered  him  by  the  oligarchists,  attempted  to  subdue 
him,  but  failed,  and  being  himself  routed  in  the  city 
of  Guatemala  in  March  1840,  fled  to  San  Salvador, 
and  thence  escaped  from  the  country.  Morazan's  was 
the  last  effort  to  save  the  union.  Several  attempts 
were  made  at  later  periods,  and  even  partial  federa- 
tions were  established,  but  all  proved  ephemeral. 
The  union  was  not  only  sundered,  but  the  states  were 
at  war  with  each  other,  Costa  Rica  being  the  only 
one  that  escaped  the  general  turmoil,  owing  chiefly  to 
distance  from  the  scene  of  the  disturbances. 

The  oligarchists  and  clergy  were  now  supreme,  and 
Carrera  became  president.  With  their  advice  a  re- 
pressive system  was  established  in  the  several  sections, 
now  constituted  independent  states.  Ex-president 
Morazan  attempted,  in  1842,  to  restore  the  federation, 
seizing  the  government  of  Costa  Rica,  but  this  effort, 
successful  at  first,  ended  in  disaster. 

Francisco  Morazan  must  rank  in  history  as  in  many 
respects  the  best,  and  in  all  the  ablest,  man  that 
Central  America  possessed.  He  was  a  native  of 
Honduras,  born  in  1799,  his  father  being  a  Creole 
from  one  of  the  French  West  India  islands,  and  his 
mother  a  native  of  Honduras.  His  education  was 
such  as  the  country  could  afford  at  that  time,  and  by 
quickness  of  apprehension  and  application  he  soon 
attained  prominence.  He  was  impetuous,  and  full  of 
decision  and  perseverance  ;  his  bearing  was  free  and 
manly;  his  manner  frank  and  open.  In  1824  he  was 
secretary -general  of  Honduras,  later  a  senator,  and 
for  a  time  acting  chief  of  that  state.  In  1830  he  was 
elected  president  of  the  confederation,  and  reflected 
in  1834.  It  has  been  justly  said  of  Morazan  that  he 
was  an  honest  man,  and  always  acted  in  good  faith. 
His  political  principles  were  democratic,  and  all  the 
cajolery  and  flattery  of  the  patricians  failed  to  win 
him  to  their  party,  even  when  tendering  him  the  dic- 
c.  B.-II.  s 


114        GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

tatorship.  Thenceforth  sarcasm,  ridicule,  and  abuse 
were  heaped  upon  him,  and  at  last,  when  he  was  de- 
feated in  Costa  Rica  in  1842,  his  enemies  treated  him 
with  contumely,  and  caused  him  to  be  shot,  without 
even  the  form  of  a  trial. 

The  state  of  Guatemala,  under  the  immediate  rule 
of  Carrera,  his  brother  Sotero,  and  the  brigadier  Paiz, 
groaned  under  the  most  galling  despotism.  In  1845 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  to  kill  Carrera, 
and  the  conspirators  were  seized  and  tried  ;  those  who 
had  influential  friends  were  sent  into  exile ;  and  the 
rest  perished  in  the  damp  dungeons  of  a  fort.  Gua- 
temala became  a  republic  in  1847  ;  and  the  other  states 
followed  her  example.  Carrera  was  forced  to  resign 
in  the  following  year,  and  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
country  ;  but  disunion  among  the  liberals  and  the  in- 
trigues of  the  conservatives  brought  him  back  to 
wreak  vengeance  on  his  enemies.  He  was  soon  again 
in  power,  and  in  1854  was  made  president  for  life. 
His  despotic  sway  lasted  till  his  death  in  1865.  Car- 
rera had  led  an  immoral  life  ;  he  was  lustful  and  a 
drunkard ;  committed  heinous  crimes,  and  yet  the 
man  believed  himself  the  savior  of  Guatemala.  The 
clergy  called  him  an  instrument  of  providence,  though 
they  had  at  one  time  said  he  was  "un  antropofago." 

During  the  internecine  war  raging  in  Nicaragua  in 
1854-5,  between  the  liberales  and  legitimistas,  a  for- 
eign element  appeared  upon  the  field  in  the  person  of 
William  Walker,  the  notorious  filibuster,  who  had 
shortly  before  invaded  Lower  California  and  Sonora 
with  the  hare-brained  project  of  organizing  inde- 
pendent republics.  Walker  was  invited  by  the  dem- 
ocrats under  Castellon  to  come  to  their  aid,  and 
landed  at  Realejo  in  June  1855  with  fifty-eight 
men.  He  was  a  native  of  Tennessee,  well  educated,  and 
had  followed  the  medical  and  legal  professions,  as  well 
as  that  of  a  journalist.  He  was  not  more  than  five 
feet  four  inches  in  height,  of  plain  exterior,  and  his 
appearance  was  that  of  a  dull  and  stupid  man ;  but 


WALKER,  THE  FILIBUSTER.  115 

he  was  in  fact  a  man  of  parts,  serious,  thoughtful, 
able,  arid  energetic.  The  most  remarkable  feature  of 
his  face  was  his  brilliant  gray-blue  eye,  full  of  fire 
and  intelligence.  Sincere  and  devoted  to  his  friends, 
his  enmity  was  not  readily  appeased.  He  was  indif- 
ferent to  personal  ease  and  comfort,  as  well  as  to  the 
acquisition  of  wealth.  Though  not  incapable  of  lofty 
conceptions,  and  possessing  courage  and  self-abnega- 
tion, there  was  little  in  him,  unless  it  was  his  unbal- 
anced mind,  to  entitle  him  to  be  called  a  genius.  He 
aspired  to  be  a  Csesar  or  Napoleon,  but  lacked  both 
the  field  and  the  qualifications.  He  might  have 
carved  out  for  himself  an  honorable  and  useful  career, 
but  ambition  for  a  place  among  the  world's  notabili- 
ties made  him  restless,  to  the  extreme  of  disregard- 
ing law  and  justice.  Ambition  warped  his  judgment, 
and  hence  the  Quixotic  project  of  conquering  the 
Latin  race  in  America.  Unfortunately  for  his  plan, 
he  had  barely  reached  Nicaragua  before  he  began 
committing  acts  destined  to  lose  for  him  the  confi- 
dence of  the  men  most  essential  to  his  plans,  and 
without  whose  aid  it  was  not  possible  to  establish 
democratic  principles.  Some  of  his  later  measures 
were  reckless,  seemingly  dictated  in  utter  disregard  of 
the  good  opinion  of  mankind.  Aspiring  to  rule  in 
Central  America,  he  began  as  if  already  ruler  of  the 
world.  He  opened  an  energetic  campaign,  which 
brought  about  the  retirement  from  the  field  of  the 
so-called  legitimistas.  But  under  his  promptings 
several  political  murders  were  committed.  By  and  by 
he  found  himself  master  of  Nicaragua,  whereupon  the 
liberal  government  declared  him  a  traitor  and  usurper. 
He  then  had  himself  declared  president  of  the  re- 
public. His  first  act  showed  that  he  had  come  to 
the  country  as  an  instrument  of  the  slave-holders  in 
the  southern  states  of  the  American  union.  He  de- 
creed the  abolition  of  the  law  of  the  old  confedera- 
tion, by  which  African  slavery  was  done  away  with 
forever  in  Central  America, 


116       GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

His  usurpation  brought  against  him  the  combined 
powers  of  all  the  Central  Americans,  and  this  at  a 
time  when  he  had  invited  the  hostility  of  the  New 
York  Transit  company  by  seizing  their  river  and 
lake  steamers.  Some  fighting  occurred,  with  varied 
success,  and  he  was  at  last  besieged  at  Rivas, 
after  having  wantonly  burned  the  beautiful  city 
of  Granada.  His  forces  and  supplies  becoming 
greatly  reduced,  he  could  make  no  further  resist- 
ance; but  the  allied  army  allowed  his  surrender, 
in  April,  1857,  to  the  commander  of  the  United 
States  ship  St  Marys,  on  which  he  embarked  together 
with  his  men  and  withdrew  from  the  country.  He 
subsequently  made  another  attempt  at  invasion  in  San 
Juan  del  Norte,  but  was  captured  by  the  United 
States  naval  forces.  Walker's  last  adventure,  having 
a  similar  purpose,  was  his  invasion  in  August,  1860, 
of  Honduras,  where,  landing  at  Trujillo,  he  seized  the 
funds  of  the  custom  house,  which  were  pledged  for 
the  payment  of  bonds  in  the  hands  of  British  sub- 
jects. He  was  finally  captured  by  the  British  war- 
ship Icarus,  and  surrendered  to  the  Honduran  military 
authorities,  by  whom  he  was  executed  on  the  12th  of 
September  at  Trujillo. 

It  is  somewhat  singular  that  the  two  most  prom- 
inent men  in  effecting  the  discomfiture  of  Walker, 
Juan  Rafael  Mora  and  Jose  Maria  Canas,  should 
themselves  meet,  at'  the  hands  of  their  Costa 
Rican  countrymen,  a  similar  fate  to  that  of  the  noto- 
rious filibuster.  Mora,  being  the  president  of  Costa 
Rica,  was  deposed,  and  sent  into  exile.  He  took  up 
his  residence  in  Salvador,  but  soon  was  persuaded  to 
return  and  renew  his  power.  Not  finding  himself 
properly  supported,  he  surrendered  to  the  authorities 
on  the  30th  of  September,  1860,  and  was  shot  three 
hours  later.  This  judicial  murder  of  a  just  and 
honorable  man,  who  had  served  his  country  faithfully, 
caused  general  consternation  and  displeasure;  his  ex- 
ecution being  attributed  to  bitter  personal  animosity, 


CERNA,   GRANADOS,   AND  BARRIOS.  117 

on  the  part  of  Vicente  Aguilar,  minister  of  war,  who 
owed  him  large  sums  of  money.  Jose  Maria  Canas, 
also  one  of  Costa  Rica's  foremost  men,  was  shot  two 
days  afterward. 

At  the  death  of  Carrera,  the  presidency  of  Guate- 
mala fell  into  the  hands  of  Vicente  Cerna,  who  con- 
tinued the  retrogressive  policy  of  his  predecessor. 
He  was  also  a  great  friend  of  the  Jesuits,  who  had 
recently  become  numerous  and  wealthy.  Discontent 
prevailed  everywhere,  and  finally  the  government  of 
President  Duenas  in  Salvador  fell  to  the  ground  in 
April,  1871,  while  Cerna's  succumbed  soon  afterward 
under  the  defeat  suffered  at  San  Lucas  at  the  hands  of 
the  democrats  under  Miguel  Garcia  Granados,  and 
Justo  Rufino  Barrios.  Granados  became  provisional 
president,  and  organized  the  government  under  a  liberal 
regime,  expelled  the  Jesuits,  and  banished  the  arch- 
bishop. He  was  a  man  of  ability  and  patriotic  views, 
but  too  easy  and  kind-hearted  to  deal  with  such  un- 
scrupulous men  as  those  who  shaped  the  designs  of 
the  conservatives.  Disturbances  followed  in  quick 
succession.  There  was  war  in  the  mountains,  kept 
up  by  conservative  gold.  The  government  with  the 
cooperation  of  Barrios  expelled  a  number  of  Spanish 
friars,  closed  all  the  monasteries,  and  succeeded  in 
putting  an  end  to  the  war  for  a  time.  Granados,  who 
was  in  poor  health,  now  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
Barrios  was  the  fittest  personage  to  hold  in  subjec- 
tion men  of  evil  supremacy  and  enemies  to  liberal 
institutions.  He  accordingly  transferred  to  him  the 
executive  power,  and  he  was  subsequently  elected 
president  by  popular  vote,  assuming  office  on  the 
4th  of  June,  1873.  Barrios  was  born  in  1834  at 
San  Marcos,  in  the  department  of  Quezaltenango. 
He  was  educatad  at  Guatemala  for  a  notary-public, 
and  received  his  commission,  but  does  not  seem 
to  have  acted  in  that  capacity.  He  was  of  about 
medium  height,  rather  light  in  complexion,  with  a 


118        GOVERNMENT— CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO. 

cold,  distant  look,  and  plain  and  unassuming  in  dress. 
In  manner  he  was  brusque,  unconventional,  and 
wanting  in  refinement.  When  first  he  was  made 
president  he  was  illiterate;  but  he  was  possessed 
of  that  rarest  illumination  of  genius,  the  knowledge 
of  his  own  ignorance.  With  a  far-reaching  mind 
and  untiring  industry  was  united  a  determination 
to  serve  himself  and  his  country,  for  he  saw  that 
by  serving  his  country  he  could  best  serve  him- 
self. Acts  of  despotism  and  brutality  he  committed 
without  number,  making  priests  and  oligarchs 
tremble ;  but  he  gave  his  country  religious  and  intel- 
lectual emancipation.  He  did  for  Central  America 
what  Juarez  did  for  Mexico,  in  delivering  the  land 
from  the  baneful  power  of  the  clergy.  Yet  he  was 
red-handed  and  treacherous,  like  too  many  of  his 
race,  and  utterly  regardless  of  truth  and  veracity. 
He  did  not  fail  to  enrich  himself,  for  the  wise  man 
does  not  despise  money.  He  was  a  bad  man  doing  a 
good  work,  for  he  secured  to  Guatemala  liberal  insti- 
tutions, internal  peace,  and  the  advancement  of  ed- 
ucation, agriculture,  commerce,  and  wealth.  The 
country  was  supplied  with  schools,  as  it  had  never 
been  before,  with  railroads,  telegraphs,  and  many 
other  appliances  of  civilization.  The  capital  had  lost 
the  old  monkish  and  funereal  aspect,  and  wore  a  mod- 
ern look  as  evidence  that  the  ideas  of  the  present  age 
were  fully  recognized. 

Barrios  had  repeated  difficulties  with  the  rulers  of 
the  other  states,  some  of  them  culminating  in  ware 
He  loved  to  domineer ;  but  the  fact  remains  that  in 
1876,  after  a  successful  campaign  against  Salvador 
and  Honduras,  when  he  had  these  two  republics  at 
his  mercy,  he  extended  to  them  generous  treatment. 
Reflected  in  1876,  a  plot  was  laid  during  his  second 
term  to  murder  him  and  other  leading  persons,  to 
sack  the  capital,  and  bring  about  a  revolution.  The 
parties  implicated  were  tried  by  court-martial  and 


BARRIOS'  ADMINISTRATION,  119 

convicted.  Seventeen  of  the  leaders,  including  the 
commandant  of'  artillery,  were  shot ;  and  accomplices 
of  lower  degree  received  other  penalties,  but  were 
eventually  pardoned  by  the  president.  Nor  was  this 
the  only  attempt  made  to  kill  this  man  who  himself 
had  killed  so  many. 

Guatemala  had  been  hitherto  without  a  fundamen- 
tal law,  the  president  acting  with  dictatorial  powers. 
In  March  1879  a  constituent  assembly  was  summoned, 
before  which  he  surrendered  his  office,  and  in  the 
same  year  a  constitution  was  adopted,  under  which 
he  was  reflected  for  the  term  ending  March  1,  1886. 
Soon  afterward  he  visited  the  United  States,  and 
through  the  mediation  of  the  American  president  set- 
tled the  boundary  question  with  Mexico  as  to  the 
district  of  Soconusco. 

The  idea  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  Central 
American  nationality  occupied  Barrios'  mind.  He 
endeavored  to  bring  it  about  by  peaceful  means;  but 
after  much  patient  negotiation  became  convinced  that 
this  object  could  be  accomplished  only  by  force.  Be- 
lieving that  he  could  depend  on  the  cooperation  of 
the  presidents  of  Salvador  and  Honduras,  he  obtained 
the  assent  of  the  Guatemala  assembly  ;  but  the  pres- 
ident of  Salvador  failed  him.  He  then  undertook  to 
coerce  the  latter,  and  lost  his  life  on  the  2d  of  April, 
1885,  in  an  assault  against  the  fortification  of  Chal- 
chuapa.  His  remains  were  rescued  and  conveyed  to 
the  capital. 

Before  presenting  the  historic  frame  work  of  Cali- 
fornia, I  will  give  the  biographies  of  two  of  her  gov 
ernors,  John  G.  Downey  and  George  C.  Perkins, 
which  will  aptly  illustrate  the  duties  and  require- 
ments of  the  position,  and  the  quality  of  men  who 
sometimes  filled  it,  at  the  same  time  enabling  the 
reader  the  better  to  understand  what  follows. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LIFE   OF  JOHN  G.   DOWNEY. 

POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1859 — PARENTAGE,  ANCESTRY,  AND  EDUCATION — 
BUSINESS  APPRENTICESHIP — JOURNEY  TO  CALIFORNIA — EARLY  EXPERI- 
ENCE— AT  Los  ANGELES — REAL  ESTATE  AND  BUILDING — MRS  DOWNEY 
— POLITICAL  CAREER — THE  PARSONS  BULKHEAD  BILL — OPINIONS  OF  THE 
PRESS — APPROBATION  OF  THE  GOVERNOR'S  POLICY. 

"THAT  character  is  power,"  it  has  been  well 
remarked,  "  is  true  in  a  much  higher  sense  than  that 
knowledge  is  power."  The  mere  possession  of  intel- 
ligence without  the  moral  worth  which  should  accom- 
pany it,  of  mind  without  heart,  of  ability  without  the 
safeguards  which  should  control  it,  are,  indeed,  powers 
of  themselves,  though  too  often  powers  for  evil. 
Integrity,  uprightness,  and  a  strict  regard  for  truth, 
or,  as  an  old  writer  puts  it,  '"that  inbred  loyalty  to 
virtue  which  can  serve  her  without  a  livery,"  consti- 
tute the  truest  nobility  of  character,  and  he  who  is 
the  possessor  of  such  qualities,  when  united  with  force 
of  will,  wields  an  influence  for  good  that  cannot  fail 
to  leave  its  impress.  Such  men  come  not  in  troops, 
not  many,  perhaps  not  one  in  a  lifetime,  but  a  single 
individual,  whose  moral  nature  has  been  fashioned  in 
such  a  mould,  is  worth  a  myriad  of  the  baser  sort. 

It  is  a  well-known  saying  that  "a  man  is  already 
of  consequence  in  the  world  when  it  is  known  that  we 
can  implicitly  rely  upon  him."  And  more  especially 
is  this  quality  valuable  in  those  who  control  the 
affairs  of  state  or  nation. 

(120) 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  121 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  exciting  scenes,  when  on  the 
14th  day  of  January  1860,  John  G.  Downey  took 
his  seat  as  the  governor  of  California.  The  most 
momentous  issues  of  state  and  nation  were  at  stake. 
At  home  the  blood  set  boiling  by  one  of  the  most 
notable  campaigns  of  California's  political  history  had 
not  yet  cooled,  while  far  away  was  heard  the  low 
rumble  of  coming  civil  strife.  The  spirit  of  chiv- 
alry had  not  wholly  departed.  The  bowie-knife  and 
revolver  were  still  elements  in  the  formation  and 
maintenance  of  opinion.  The  question  of  slavery  was 
paramount  over  all.  Political  parties  and  personal 
feeling  were  alike  profoundly  moved.  All  felt  that  a 
turning  point  in  the  destinies  of  the  nation  had  been 
reached. 

Champions  of  their  respective  parties  were  the 
United  States  senators,  David  C.  Broderick,  anti- 
Lecompton,  or  anti-slavery  democrat,  and  William  M. 
Gwin,  whose  agents  managed  the  pro-slavery  division 
of  the  democrats.  The  gubernatorial  election  of 
1859  had  returned  Milton  S.  Latham  for  governor, 
and  John  G.  Downey  lieutenant-governor,  over  the 
republican  candidates  Leland  Stanford  for  governor, 
arid  James  F.  Kennedy  for  lieutenant-governor. 
Broderick  and  Gwin  had  both  come  on  from  Wash- 
ington to  take  part  in  the  canvass,  which  became  very 
heated  and  early  threatened  bloodshed.  A  devoted 
follower  of  Gwin,  and  consequently  an  enemy  of  his 
rival,  was  David  S.  Terry,  judge  of  the  supreme 
court. 

As  the  campaign  proceeded,  and  the  combatants 
waxed  hotter,  a  quarrel  arose  between  Terry  and 
Broderick,  leading  to  a  duel,  which  resulted  in  the 
death  of  the  latter.  The  seat  in  the  United  States 
senate  thus  made  vacant  was  filled  temporarily  by 
Henry  P.  Haun ;  but  on  the  day  after  Latham's 
inauguration  as  governor  of  California  the  legislature 
in  joint  convention  elected  him  to  Broderick's  late 
position,  and  he  at  once  vacated  the  executive  office, 


1 22  GO  VERNM  EOT— CALIFORNIA. 

thus  constituting  John  G.  Downey  the  seventh   gov- 
ernor of  the  state. 

The  man  thus  elevated  to  the  highest  office  of  the 
state  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  having  been  born  in 
his  grandfather's  house  called  Castle  Sampson,  county 
Roscommon,  June  24,  1827.  His  father's  name  was 
Dennis  Downey  and  his  mother's  Bridget  Gately. 
Among  his  ancestors  were  several,  as  early  as  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  distinguished  as  chiefs, 
bishops,  and  abbots.  Castle  Sampson  was  a  story 
and  a  half  house,  built  of  cut  stone,  the  material  hav- 
ing been  taken  from  an  old  Norman  castle.  Dennis 
Downey  was  as  fine  a  looking  man  as  the  country 
could  boast,  standing  five  feet  eight  inches  in  his 
stocking-feet,  and  being  able  to  jump  into  the  saddle 
while  the  horse  was  in  full  run.  And  he  was  as 
strong  mentally  as  physically.  The  family  were  all 
catholics,  and  well  educated,  Governor  Downey's 
grandfather  having  kept  his  children  at  school  until 
they  were  twenty-one. 

The  boy  John  was  brought  up  to  work ;  indeed, 
few  men  in  America  are  found  having  accomplished 
anything  in  life  who  did  not  learn  the  lessons  of  appli- 
cation in  early  life.  All  kinds  of  farm  work  became 
familiar  to  him,  haying,  ploughing,  and  raising  stock. 

After  a  preliminary  education  under  the  eminently 
practical  system  maintained  in  the  national  schools  of 
Ireland,  John  came  to  America,  whither  two  half-sis- 
ters had  preceded  him,  in  1842,  and  attended  a  Latin 
school  in  Maryland  under  the  tuition  of  a  Mr 
Cochran.  He  walked  three  miles  to  school,  carry- 
ing his  luncheon  and  books.  In  his  studies  his 
tastes  leaned  toward  the  classics  rather  than  toward 
mathematics. 

His  sisters  desired  him  to  become  a  priest,  in  which 
calling,  as  I  have  said,  his  relatives  had  been  emi- 
nent; but  John's  inclinations  were  not  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  he  was  apprenticed  to  learn  the  drag  busi- 
ness in  Washington  with  John  F.  Callan.  Next  he 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  123 

went  south,  and  spent  a  year  in  a  drug  and  stationery 
store  at  Vicksburg.  In  1846  he  turned  his  face 
westward,  pausing  for  three  years  at  Cincinnati, 
where  he  was  full  business  partner  with  a  kind  old 
Scotchman,  John  Darling.  In  1849  he  came  on  to 
California. 

All  through  his  earlier  life  his  mind  had  been  filled 
with  visions  of  broad  »acres  as  the  only  real  and 
proper  foundation  for  wealth  and  prosperity ;  and 
although  it  was  the  gold  excitement  which  first 
directed  his  attention  to  the  Pacific  coast,  land 
rather  than  metal  was  uppermost  in  his  mind  as  the 
ultimate  purpose.  Darling  had  endeavored  to  dis- 
suade him  from  going  to  California,  but  Downey  felt 
that  in  this  favored  land  he  could  best  achieve  his 
destiny.  And  it  was  a  rare  intelligence  that  thus 
early  in  life  led  him  to  rest  his  fortunes  on  the  sub- 
stantial property  of  land  rather  than  give  himself  up 
to  glittering  allurements  of  gold. 

The  journey  was  made  by  way  of  the  Isthmus,  with 
a  little  time  spent  at  New  Orleans  and  Habana. 
From  Panama,  his  steamer  on  the  Pacific  side,  the 
West  Point,  failing  to  make  her  connection,  he  was 
obliged  to  proceed  on  the  old  store-ship  Sarah  to  San 
Francisco,  the  voyage  occupying  eighty-seven  days. 

Downey  had  just  ten  dollars  in  silver,  and  a  gold 
watch,  when  he  landed  in  San  Francisco.  Of  course 
he  must  see  the  mines,  if  only  to  take  a  dose  and 
become  sick  of  them.  So  he  pawned  his  watch  for 
sixty  dollars,  went  to  Sacramento,  thence  to  Marys- 
ville  and  Grass  Valley,  and  after  a  short  experience 
of  working  in  water  up  to  his  knees,  and  getting  little 
for  it,  he  was  satisfied  he  had  enough  of  it  hence 
returning  to  Sacramento,  he  rolled  barrels  on  the 
levee  for  passage-money  back  to  the  bay.  For  two 
weeks  he  clerked  for  a  Jew,  after  which  he  obtained 
employment  in  the  wholesale  drug-house  of  Henry 
Johnson  &  Co.  on  Dupont  street. 

With  such  an  experience  and  such  a  position  most 


124  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

men  of  that  period  would  have  been  content ;  but  not 
so  Downey.  Gold  mining  and  its  more  immediate 
influences  and  results  might  do  for  those  more  imbued 
than  he  with  the  gambling  spirit  of  the  Inferno;  for 
him  a  broad  expanse  of  good  land  under  a  beautiful 
and  beneficent  sky  was  still  the  dominant  idea. 

One  day  he  picked  up  a  little  paper  printed  at  Los 
Angeles  which  gave  some  aocount  of  southern  Cali- 
fornia. His  attention  was  instantly  arrested.  He 
read  on,  made  inquiries,  and  thought,  and  read  again, 
becoming  more  and  more  satisfied  that  here  was  what 
he  wanted.  Among  others  on  whom  he  called  to  ask 
information  was  W.  D.  M.  Howard,  who  knew  all 
about  the  country. 

"  What  in  the  world  do  you  want  to  go  there  for 
with  your  drugs?"  Howard  asked.  "It  is  the 
healthiest  country  in  the  world." 

"Well,  tell  me  how  many  people  are  now  there," 
Downey  replied,  "  and  I  will  teach  them  how  to  take 
medicine." 

Learning  of  an  invoice  of  goods  shipped  to  a 
glutted  market  from  Philadelphia,  Downey  bought 
it  for  twenty  per  cent  less  than  original  cost,  and  pro- 
ceeding to  Los  Angeles  he  opened  a  drug-store. 
This  was  in  1850.  The  voyage  down  by  schooner 
had  occupied  three  weeks,  and  he  walked  a  good  por- 
tion of  the  way  from  San  Pedro  to  save  ten  dollars. 
Such  was  the  entry  into  Los  Angeles  of  one  of  its 
first  citizens. 

But  the  country  around  and  beyond,  ah!  there 
were  the  health  arid  beauty  satisfying  to  the  heart  of 
the  enterprising  young  man.  It  was  December,  and 
the  world  was  all  abloom — I  need  not  pause  here  to 
describe  Los  Angeles  in  December. 

Downey  at  once  found  a  business  associate  in  Dr 
McFarland  of  Tennessee,  and  they  made  a  fine  show- 
ing with  their  $1,800  of  stock  on  the  property  owned 
by  B.  D.  Wilson.  It  was  then  the  only  drug  store 
between  San  Francisco  and  San  Diego,  and  people 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  125 

used  to  come  all  the  way  from  Sonora  for  medicines. 
At  the  end  of  three  years  Downey  had  thirty  thou- 
sand dollars. 

He  then  sold  out  the  drug-store  and  engaged  in 
cattle  and  sheepraising.  He  was  now  in  his  element, 
besides  being  on  the  highway  to  fortune.  We  cannot 
help  being  struck  by  the  singular  foresight,  amount- 
ing almost  to  inspiration,  which  prompted  a  young 
ambitious  man  to  leave  the  exciting  scenes  attending 
gold-mining  up  the  Sacramento,  the  speculations  of 
commerce  and  real  estate  in  San  Francisco,  and  also 
a  remarkably  prosperous  business  career  in  Los 
Angeles,  and  bury  himself  in  the  country  amid  his 
lands  and  herds.  But  so  it  was,  although  it  took 
some  others  two  or  three  decades  to  see  the  wisdom 
of  it. 

When  Downey  prophesied  that  ere  long  Los 
Angeles  would  be  a  city  of  40,000  inhabitants,  the 
centre  of  education  and  refinement  for  all  this  wide 
section,  he  was  laughed  at.  But  he  went  his  way, 
following  the  bent  of  his  rare  intelligence.  He  bought 
land  all  around  where  the  city  of  Downey  now  is, 
in  the  vicinity  of  Wilmington  arid  San  Pedro,  and 
elsewhere,  until  in  the  end  his  acres  numbered  75,000, 
besides  a  large  amount  of  city  property.  His  Santa 
Gertrudes  rancho,  adjoining  the  Stearns  rancho,  is 
renowned  for  its  beauty  and  wealth  of  resource,  and 
for  its  mineral  hot  springs.  He  delivered  addresses 
and  wrote  articles  tending  to  advance  the  well-being 
of  the  country.  He  published  a  pamphlet  on  the 
peculiar  advantages  here  offered,  which  was  distrib- 
uted near  and  far.  With  mind  and  heart  full  of  the 
substantial  charms  of  climate  and  soil,  he  discussed  the 
attractive  features  of  the  country  in  his  graphic  and 
cogent  style,  which  had  a  marked  effect  in  bringing 
about  the  present  prosperous  state  of  things.  He 
was  always  first  among  those  who  took  practical  and 
business-like  steps  toward  the  accomplishment  of  this 
end.  He  was  in  favor  of  a  division  of  the  state, 


126  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

believing  that  the  northern  and  southern  sections  had 
not  that  identity  of  interests  that  warranted  their 
remaining  politically  together.  He  was  the  first  to 
cut  up  his  land  into  small  tracts,  selling  it  at  ten  dol- 
lars an  acre,  and  giving  the  buyer  ten  years  in  which 
to  pay  for  it.  This  was  the  very  beginning  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  country.  The  colony  at  Anaheim 
was  the  result  of  these  enlightened  and  far-reaching 
measures,  the  founders  being  entertained  and  encour- 
aged by  him,  and  the  place  being  named  in  honor  of 
his  sister.  The  first  important  building  in  Los 
Angeles  was  the  Downey  block,  begun  in  1869.  The 
site  was  selected  as  the  assured  centre,  whichever 
way  the  town  might  grow.  It  cost  $16,500,  and  he 
had  ten  years  in  which  to  pay  for  it.  He  erected 
one  part  and  then  another,  finishing  it  up  as  the  rents 
came  in.  He  had  no  architect  or  contractor,  but  super- 
intended it  all  himself,  the  work  being  done  by  the  day. 
Governor  Downey  was  first  married  in  1852  at 
Los  Angeles,  to  Miss  Guirado,  a  native  of  Los 
Angeles  county,  and  daughter  of  Don  Rafael  Gui- 
rado, who  came  from  Sonoraand  settled  here  in  1835. 
Mrs  Downey  possessed  much  grace  and  charm  of 
manner,  and  sustained  the  high  position  she  was 
called  upon  to  fill  at  the  state  capital  with  courtesy 
and  dignity.  She  was  also  distinguished  at  Los 
Angeles  for  her  piety  and  benevolence;  and  on  the 
occasion  of  her  sad  death,  which  occurred  in  an  acci- 
dent on  the  Southern  Pacific  railway,  near  Tehachapi, 
January  20,  1883,  many  eloquent  and  heartfelt  ex- 
pressions of  sorrow  from  her  wide  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances testified  to  the  high  place  she  had  occupied  in 
their  esteem.  Her  wedded  life  was  unblessed  with 
children,  and  she  was  especially  kind  to  the  orphan. 
Governor  Downey  was  on  the  same  train,  and  suffered 
in  the  disaster  by  having  several  ribs  broken,  and  his 
constitution  so  shattered  that  he  has  never  entirely 
recovered.  To  his  present  wife,  Rosa  V.  Kelley,  he 
was  married  in  the  spring  of  1888, 


JOHN   G.  DOWNEY.  127 

Men  who,  like  John  G.  Downey,  while  building  up 
themselves  are  building  up  the  commonwealth,  who, 
while  achieving  fortune,  are  assisting  in  laying  broader 
and  deeper  the  foundations  of  the  state  and  nation,  of 
liberal  ideas  and  free  institutions,  hardly  realize  the 
grandeur  of  their  position,  or  the  proud  possibilities 
flowing  from  them  and  their  work.  Look  along  the 
annals  of  our  country,  and  see  how  in  certain  instances 
the  character  and  actions  of  men  have  aifected  the  des- 
tinies of  the  people.  In  the  development  of  our  coast 
the  story  is  told  of  a  certain  miner  who,  from  dis- 
appointment and  loss  of  courage  under  failure,  poi- 
soned his  family  and  killed  himself,  his  successor  in  the 
mine  finding  a  million-dollar  deposit  only  three  feet 
from  where  the  suicide  ceased  his  labors.  Such  is  fail- 
ure, and  such  the  corresponding  influence  of  success. 

Entering  more  fully  into  the  analysis  of  the  per- 
sonnel and  character  of  Governor  Downey,  we  find 
a  man  five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  of  square  build, 
fair  complexion,  his  present  white  hair  being  once 
auburn,  hazel  eyes,  deep  and  keen,  manner  courteous, 
and  with  a  quick  and  concise  speech.  Possessed  nat- 
urally of  a  strong  intellect,  he  has  ever  thought  for 
himself,  and  has  been  guided  along  the  intricate  path- 
way of  his  life  by  honorable  aspirations  and  an 
enlightened  conviction. 

Some  have  a  genius  for  plunging  at  once  into  the 
heart  of  a  proposition,  while  others,  having  a  less 
firm  grip  upon  their  faculties,  arrive  at  results  step  by 
step  through  infinite  toil,  and  by  the  severest  mental  or 
physical  effort.  Governor  Downey's  maxim  through 
life  has  been  to  follow  his  first  honest  impulse;  not 
that  it  was  deemed  infallible,  but  as  something  not  to 
be  departed  from  without  sufficient  reason.  "When 
differing  from  others,  as  he  was  often  called  upon  to 
do,  he  had  always  a  reason  satisfying  to  himself, 
though  not  always  feeling  obliged  to  express  it.  He 
has  ever  been  held  in  high  esteem  by  his  fellow-citi- 


128  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

zens  and  associates,  and  is  regarded  as  the   father  of 
latter-day  development. 

His  manner  is  dignified,  yet  genial  and  hearty,  and 
he  possesses  agreeable  conversational  gifts.  He  is 
unaffected  and  outspoken  in  his  opinions,  has  the  fac- 
ulty of  making  and  keeping  friends,  and  is  a  generally 
popular  man  among  the  large  number  of  those  who 
know  him.  He  has  great  reason  to  be  proud  of  his 
record,  which  may  stand  forth  for  all  time  an  honor- 
able one  in  all  respects.  As  governor  he  served  the 
state  faithfully,  honestly,'  and  with  distinguished 
ability  ;  regardless  of  private  or  partisan  ends,  he 
looked  to  the  good  of  the  whole  people,  and  brought 
honor  upon  his  state  and  upon  himself.  In  private 
life  the  governor's  career  has  been  one  of  marked  suc- 
cess, and  his  character  irreproachable.  It  is  such 
men  as  Governor  John  G.  Downey  to  whom  Cali- 
fornia owes  the  tribute  of  everlasting  gratitude  for 
disinterested,  whole-souled  devotion  to  her  best  inter- 
ests, and  her  consequent  preeminence  among  her  sis- 
ter states.  As  a  private  citizen  his  life  has  been 
identified  with  the  important  interests  of  California, 
He  is  conspicuous  among  the  pioneers  and  builders  in 
a  new  land — men  who  lay  the  foundation  for  civili- 
zation, and  whose  spirit  and  handiwork  are  recognized 
in  the  superstructure  so  long  as  they  live.  But  it 
has  been  the  fortune  and  honor  of  Governor  Downey 
to  have  his  name  written  in  letters  of  gold  on  the 

O 

pages  of  California's    record   as    the    conservator    of 
public  weal. 

His  charities  have  been  constant  and  munificent, 
and  not  confined  to  sect  or  creed.  "  When  the  uni- 
versity of  southern  California  was  projected,"  he 
says,  "  I  donated  to  them  property  in  Los  Angeles 
which  would  probably  bring  a  million  dollars  at  the 
present  time.  The  catholic  bishop  sent  for  me  and 
wanted  to  know  if  I  had  left  the  church.  I  told 
him  no,  but  that  the  work  these  men  were  doing  was 
just  as  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God  as  the  work  of 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  129 

our  church,  and  that  I  had  already  done  a  great  deal 
for  the  catholics  here  and  at  San  Bernardino,  giving 
them  land  and  money." 

He  was  ever  interested  in  the  public  affairs  of  state 
and  nation.  When  a  boy  at  school,  by  association  he 
was  inclined  to  be  a  whig  in  sentiment,  but  after  he 
had  thoroughly  examined  the  course  of  the  demo- 
cratic party,  and  noted  how  it  fought  for  the  consti- 
tution, he  forthwith  took  his  stand  on  that  platform, 
where  he  has  remained  ever  since,  though  often  voting 
an  independent  ticket.  He  has  filled  many  offices  of 
honor  and  trust  besides  that  of  governor,  among  them 
the  collectorship  of  the  port  of  San  Pedro,  council- 
man, and  member  of  the  assembly.  He  was  one  of 
the  organizers  of  the  Farmers  and  Merchants  bank. 

When  he  took  his  seat  as  governor  he  was  but 
thirty-two  years  of  age.  It  had  been  arranged 
beforehand  that  Latham  should  retire,  and  that  he 
should  be  installed  governor.  He  was  president  of 
the  senate  and  lieutenant-governor  but  for  five  days. 
Though  young  in  years  when  he  became  chief  exec- 
utive of  the  state,  his  administration  was  marked  by 
maturity  of  judgment.  A  leading  editor  of  the  day 
thus  writes :  "  Downey  won  the  gratitude  of  the 
friends  of  a  free  press  by  pocketing  a  bill  concerning 
libel,  intended  to  punish  for  their  outspoken,  honest 
editorials  certain  papers  at  the  bay  that  lashed  the 
treasury  thieves  into  continuous  fury.  The  gratitude 
of  the  bay  city  people  toward  the  Los  Angeles  apoth- 
ecary, who  played  the  part  of  governor  so  much  bet- 
ter than  any  of  his  predecessors  had  done,  was 
unbounded.  There  was  nothing  they  would  not  have 
given  him,  but  that  his  southern  proclivities  drew 
him  toward  the  close  of  his  term  upon  a  rock  which 
in  stormy  times  no  craft  could  graze  without  serious 
damage." 

Indeed,  he  but  expressed  the  opinion  of  the  people 
when  on  the  8th  of  January  1862,  in  yielding  the 
executive  chair  to  his  successor,  Leland  Stanford,  he 

C.  B.— II.     9 


130  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

inscribed  in  the  annals  of  the  state:  "  Every  depart- 
ment of  the  government  has  been  conducted  in  such 
a  manner  as  cannot  fail  to  give  confidence  and  satis- 
faction to  the  people.  The  appropriations  made  by 
the  legislature  have  been  faithfully  disbursed  for  the 
objects  for  which  they  were  intended,  and  in  strict 
conformity  with  the  requirements  of  law." 

Surrounding  this  legislature  was  a  strong  lobby, 
which  made  its  presence  felt  by  all ;  but  the  governor, 
who  had  entered  upon  his  duties  with  a  modest  depre- 
ciation of  his  abilities,  displayed  throughout  execu- 
tive powers  of  no  mean  order.  While  ever  vigilant, 
he  was  not  arbitrary ;  with  broad  views  and  serene 
temper,  he  held  the  scales  of  justice  with  a  steady 
hand. 

Concerning  a  bill  introduced  by  Dr  I.  S.  Titus, 
proposing  to  allow  certain  counties  to  retain  the 
state's  portion  of  the  foreign  miners'  license  tax,  etc., 
in  his  veto  the  governor  said  :  "  We  have  been  for 
years  trying  to  arrive  at  a  cash  paying  basis,  and  now 
that  the  object  has  been  accomplished,  and  the  peo- 
ple gratified  with  the  results,  you  are  about  to  return 
by  lavish  and  unheard-of  appropriations  to  our  former 
state  of  bankruptcy.  I  consider  this  bill  unjust,  and 
wanting  in  good  faith  to  the  other  counties  of  the 
state.  It  is  time  this  system  of  legislation  was 
arrested." 

On  the  29th  of  March,  1861,  the  governor  vetoed 
a  bill  by  Watt,  to  incorporate  the  town  of  Grass 
Valley,  which  provided  that  the  people,  by  vote,  at  a 
formal  election,  should  have  power  to  impose  on  the 
property  of  the  town  such  rate  of  taxation  as  they 
might  desire.  The  governor  declared  that  "  it  was 
never  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  constitution 
to  give  this  unlimited  power  of  taxation  to  the  peo- 
ple; that  power  is  wisely  vested  in  the  legislature, 
and  cannot  be  transferred  without  constitutional  restric- 
tions. I  regard  this  bill  as  clearly  unconstitutional." 

In  refusing  to  sign  a  city  toll-road  bill  the  governor, 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  131 

referring  to  the  map,  said,  "It  will  be  seen  that  a 
toll-gate  is  attempted  to  be  placed  almost  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  city  regardless  of  any  expression  of  the 
will  of  the  property-owners  and  residents  along  the 
route,  or  of  first  obtaining  the  consent  of  the  board 
of  supervisors.  I  regard  every  toll-gate  on  roads 
or  streets  leading  to  or  from  San  Francisco  as 
objectionable,  not  only  to  the  residents  of  the  city, 
but  also  to  those  having  business  to  transact  in 
our  commercial  metropolis.  The  board  of  super- 
visors should  be  empowered  to  get  possession  of 
these  roads  and  maintain  them  as  public  highways. 
In  their  present  condition  they  can  only  be  looked 
upon  as  public  nuisances." 

But  the  act  of  all  others  which  crowned  his  politi- 
cal career  with  fadeless  glory  was  that  which  defeated 
the  vile  purposes  of  a  band  of  schemers  having  an 
eye  of  evil  intent  on  the  commercial  prosperity  of 
San  Francisco.  It  was  called  the  Parsons  Bulk- 
head bill,  introduced  in  the  legislature  in  1860  by 
Titus,  proposing  to  grant  to  the  San  Francisco  Dock 
and  Wharf  company,  composed  of  Levi  Parsons, 
John  Crane,  H.  S.  Gates,  J.  Mora  Moss,  Abel  Guy, 
John  Nightingale,  and  John  B.  Felton,  the  syndicate 
being  represented  in  San  Francisco  by  the  firm  of 
Pioche,  Bayerque  &  Co.,  the  right  to  build  upon  the 
water  line  of  1851  a  bulkhead  or  seawall,  with  piers, 
wharves,  and  docks,  with  the  right  to  collect  tolls, 
etc.,  and  also  appropriate  to  themselves  any  lands, 
wharves,  or  franchise  rights  along  the  line  belonging 
to  the  city,  and  take  possession  of  any  private  prop- 
erty on  making  compensation  therefor,  thus  securing 
for  fifty  years  control  of  the  water  front  of  the  city 
of  San  Francisco  from  Black  point  to  Mission  bay. 

In  stating  his  objections  the  governor  said :  "  After 
giving  this  bill  the  most  careful  consideration  in  all 
its  details,  I  am  led  to  the  irresistible  conclusion  that 
its  provisions  are  not  only  in  conflict  with  the  consti- 
tution and  the  principles  of  natural  justice,  but  that 


132  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  measure,  as  a  whole,  is  calculated  to  work  irrep- 
arable injury  to  our  commerce,  internal  and  external, 
of  which  San  Francisco  is,  and  must  ever  remain,  the 
metropolis.  .  .  .  There  is  no  public  object  contem- 
plated by  the  present  bill  but  what  has  been  already 
provided  for  by  the  various  enactments  referred  to; 
and  the  franchise  which  it  proposes  to  confer  upon  the 
Dock  and  Wharf  company  has,  by  a  previous  grant, 
been  irrevocably  disposed  of.  The  right  to  construct 
the  front  streets  or  to  build  a  bulkhead,  with  the 
necessary  wharves,  piers,  and  docks,  with  the  right 
and  duty  to  provide  for  the  repair  and  regulation  of 
these  works,  including  the  right  to  collect  and  fix  the 
rates  of  wharfage,  tolls,  and  dockage,  has  heretofore 
been  granted  to  the  city  and  county  of  San  Francisco, 
though  not  in  the  same  words  adopted  in  this  bill, 
yet  in  terms  not  less  comprehensive  and  effectual. 
Assured  by  such  legislation,  the  city  has  heretofore 
constructed  wharves  for  the  accommodation  of  com- 
merce, under  various  contracts,  which,  in  several 
cases,  were  defectively  executed,  have  been  confirmed 
by  special  legislative  acts.  The  wharves  have  been 
leased  out  for  terms  of  years,  which,  in  most  cases, 
will  expire  in  1862.  The  rents  of  some  of  them  are 
placed  under  the  control  of  the  commissioners  of  the 
funded  debt  of  1851,  and  are  sacredly  pledged  for 
the  payment  of  the  city  indebtedness.  I  do  not 
intend  to  intimate  an  opinion  that  under  existing  leg- 
islation the  city  and  county  of  San  Francisco  is 
invested  with  the  exclusive  right  to  build  wharves 
and  collect  wharfage  except  outside  of  the  water 
front ;  nor  but  that  under  the  present,  or  any  consti- 
tutional legislation  on  the  subject,  the  entire  water 
front  of  San  Francisco  would  be  as  free  to  those 
engaged  in  trade  as  the  seashore,  or  any  public  high- 
way in  the  state,  subject  only  to  such  regulations  as 
the  city  or  state  in  the  exercise  of  the  necessary  pow- 
ers of  government  independent  of  any  right  of  prop- 
erty may  think  proper  to  impose,  for  the  benefit  of 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  133 

trade  or  the  maintenance  of  public  order.  It  would 
doubtless  be  the  true  policy  of  the  state  to  maintain 
that  freedom  to  the  fullest  extent  to  which  it  now 
exists.  In  the  adoption  and  maintenance  of  this  pol- 
icy, the  disposition  and  interest  of  San  Francisco,  as 
well  as  the  state  at  large,  would  be  in  perfect  har- 
mony. This  bill  then  attempts  to  divest  and  impair 
the  rights  of  property  growing  out  of  previous  acts 
of  the  legislature,  which  are  to  be  regarded  as  con- 
tracts. The  bill  also  empowers  the  Dock  and  Wharf 
company -to  take  and  appropriate  private  property, 
not  for  any  such  public  use  as  contemplated  by  the 
constitutional  provisions  on  the  subject,  but  to  facili- 
tate a  private  enterprise,  and  augment  the  profits  of 
its  stockholders.  I  regard  the  bill,  therefore,  as 
plainly  repugnant  to  section  10,  article  1,  of  the  fed- 
eral constitution,  and  to  section  16,  article  1,  of  the 
constitution  of  this  state.  The  state,  on  the  ground 
of  the  highest  policy,  as  well  as  of  natural  justice, 
should  regard  its  faith  in  whatever  form  given,  and 
the  rights  of  private  property,  as  inviolable.  The 
habitual  disregard  of  the  one  or  the  other  would 
destroy  industry,  and  arrest  all  useful  progress.  Prop- 
erty, legitimately  acquired,  is  the  product  and  reward 
of  labor.  If  it  be  not  secure,  men  will  not  work  for 
it,  and  universal  indolence  and  crime  will  succeed. 
Besides  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  measure  under 
consideration,  I  deem  it  my  imperative  duty  to  with- 
hold the  executive  sanction  for  other  reasons  not  less 
cogent.  On  any  ordinary  grounds  of  state  policy  I 
should  defer  to  the  opinions  of  a  majority  of  the 
two  houses  of  the  legislature  ;  but  when  a  proposed 
measure  is  calculated,  as  I  believe  this  is,  to  bring 
upon  the  state  great  and  irreparable  injury,  I  conceive 
it  my  duty  to  assume  the  responsibility,  and  arrest 
it.  Monopolies  are  odious;  they  are  especially  repug- 
nant to  the  genius  of  our  government,  and  to  the 
habits  and  opinions  of  our  people.  They  are  to  be 
tolerated  only  in  cases  of  great  necessity,  a  condition 


134  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

which  does  not  exist  with  respect  to  the  objects  pro- 
posed by  this  bill.  The  value  of  the  franchise  which 
it  grants,  and  which  has  been  sought  with  great  avid- 
ity for  nearly  five  years,  has  been  estimated  at  several 
millions  of  dollars,  and  it  has  been  reasonably  calcu- 
lated that  the  net  receipts  of  the  existing  wharves  at 
the  expiration  of  the  present  leases,  say  in  1862,  will 
amount  to  half  a  million  of  dollars  annually.  All  this 
is  donated  to  the  Dock  and  Wharf  company.  With 
the  income  arising  from  the  profits  granted,  without 
any  additional  capital,  the  company  might  probably 
build  the  contemplated  works,  as  the  city  or  state 
might  do,  if  those  funds  were  retained.  In  the  latter 
case  the  work  would  be  public  property,  and  the 
income  would  go  into  the  public  treasury.  In  return 
for  these  large  and  perpetually  increasing  revenues, 
what  does  the  state  receive  ?  Five  per  cent  of  the 
gross  amount  realized  by  the  Dock  and  Wharf  com- 
pany to  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  state  school 
fund.  In  effect,  the  company  refunds,  for  school  pur- 
poses, a  very  small  portion  of  the  donation.  It  receives 
from  the  state  $100,  and  gives  back  $5  out  of  the 
amount  received.  It  would  afford  some  relief  to  those 
who  bear  the  burdens  of  the  government  to  get  back 
even  that  small  portion  of  what  the  state  parted  with 
without  consideration ;  but  this  five  per  cent  is  neces- 
sarily made  an  additional  tax  upon  commerce,  and  in 
case  the  state  or  city  should  repurchase,  or  the  works 
revert,  every  dollar  thus  received  into  the  school  fund 
would  have  to  be  repaid  to  the  Dock  and  Wharf  com- 
pany with  interest.  The  Dock  and  Wharf  company 
once  invested  with  the  franchise  and  revenues  granted 
by  this  act,  if  it  should  become  a  law,  would  in  a 
short  time,  by  means  of  its  vast  capital  and  exclusive 
privileges,  be  able  to  control,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
commerce,  as  well  as  the  legislation  and  policy  of  the 
city  and  state.  It  would,  by  degrees,  monopolize 
every  important  branch  of  trade.  It  might  use  its 
power  to  control  the  market,  producing  an  inflation 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  135 

or  depression  as  its  interests  might  dictate.  Thou- 
sands of  laborers,  constantly  depending  upon  the 
company  or  its  policy  for  employment,  might  at  any 
time,  to  secure  its  purposes,  be  deprived  of  their  only 
means  of  subsistence.  The  power  and  influence  of 
this  company  would  also,  in  time,  procure  a  removal 
of  all  restrictions,  and  the  right  of  repurchase  or 
reversion  contained  in  this  bill  would  be  compromised 
and  surrendered.  The  franchise  would  then  be  per- 
petual in  terms,  as  under  this  bill  it  is  now  in  effect. 
No  greater  injury  could  be  inflicted  upon  the  state 
than  to  expose  her  commerce  to  the  domination  of 
such  an  establishment.  San  Francisco  herself  would 
suffer  less  by  it  than  the  producers  and  consumers 
of  other  parts  of  the  country,  who  would  be 
dependent  on  her  market.  The  burdens  imposed 
would  fall  chiefly  upon  them,  but  all  alike  have  a 
common  interest  in  the  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  free  trade." 

All  over  the  state  the  public  journals  rang  with 
the  praises  of  Governor  Downey.  One  says  :  "Cali- 
fornia has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  man  now  filling 
the  executive  chair.  Through  all  the  conflict  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  through  the  heat  and  beyond  the  influence 
of  sectional  political  organizations,  through  the  spirit 
of  partisan  feeling,  and  against  the  moneyed  power 
and  pressure  at  the  capital  for  the  passage  of  fraudu- 
lent schemes  of  legislation,  he  has  stood  bold  and 
firm,  like  a  skilful  mariner  guiding  the  helm  of  the 
ship  of  state.  His  record  will  be  a  moving  power  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  a  monument  to  the 
man  who  has  on  every  occasion  rebuked  the  impor- 
tunities of  political  tricksters  and  self-constituted 
party  leaders,  and  who  dared  to  do  right  in  the  hon- 
est discharge  of  his  whole  duty." 

Another  remarks  on  his  message:  "It   is  a   clear, 

Sractical  document.     His  style  is  such  as  to  elicit  a 
esire   for  cool  discussion,  not  angry  debate."     And 
thus  a  public  body;  "Whereas  John   G.   Downey, 


136  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

governor  of  the  state  of  California,  by  his  firm  and 
fearless  conduct  officially  displayed  during  the  last 
session  of  the  legislature  of  the  state,  in  opposition  to 
the  acts  of  that  body  detrimental  to  the  rights  and 
interests  of  our  city,  has  merited  the  approbation  and 
gratitude  of  the  people  of  San  Francisco;  therefore 
resolved  that  we,  the  board  of  supervisors  of  the  city 
and  county  of  San  Francisco,  hereby  tender  our  sin- 
cere and  fervent  thanks  to  his  excellency,  and  that 
the  president  of  the  board  of  supervisors  be  requested 
to  transmit  to  him  a  copy  of  this  resolution." 

Privately  the  governor  remarked  upon  the  subject: 
"Levi  Parsons  came  to  see  me  about  the  Bulkhead 
bill,  and  I  gave  him  to  understand  at  once  that  he 
need  not  talk  to  me  about  it ;  and  I  put  him  down. 
'  It  takes  a  man  of  some  ability/  I  said  to  him  '  to 
distinguish  himself  in  the  senate,  but  any  man  with 
the  right  heart  in  the  right  place  can  make  a  good 
governor.'  And  I  further  told  him  that  I  thought  I 
was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  Said  Parsons, 
'  I  am  a  man  who  will  go  round  the  world  once  for  a 
friend,  and  twice  for  an  enemy.  Said  I,  '  as  my  time 
is  precious,  you  had  better  start  on  your  journey  for 
the  enemy,  for  I  propose  to  put  down  that  bill."1 

Turn,  finally,  to  the  pages  of  contemporaneous  his- 
tory, and  see  how  the  public  measures  of  Governor 
Downey  are  recorded  there.  "Latham,  having 
achieved  the  object  of  his  ambition,  resigned  the  reins 
of  state  government  to  John  G.  Downey,  lieutenant- 
governor,  a  man  without  political  history  or  expe- 
rience, but  not  destined  to  be  without  a  popularity, 
especially  in  San  Francisco,  quite  new  to  chief  execu- 
tives in  California.  The  legislature  shaped  its  labors 
mainly  with  the  view  of  securing  all  the  patronage 
possible  for  the  democratic  party,  that  it  might  go 
with  reasonable  expectations  into  the  presidential 
election  of  the  coming  fall.  It  passed  bills  for  the 
inspection  of  beef  and  pork,  and  multiplied  licenses, 
not  so  much  for  revenue  purposes,  or  because  those 


JOHN  G.  DOWNEY.  137 

staples  needed  inspection,  as  because  favorites  and  men 
skilled  in  the  tactics  of  primary  conventions  wanted 
paying  places.  It  crowned  its  unwelcome  labors  with 
an  act  authorizing  substantially  the  joint  wharf  com- 
panies of  San  Francisco  to  build  a  seawall,  or  bulk- 
head, along  the  city  front,  and  to  take  toll  of  all  that 
passed  it  into  the  city  for  fifty  years  to  come ;  mean- 
while mocking  the  state  with  the  tender  of  the  re- 

O 

served  right  to  buy  the  work  on  completion  at  cost 
and  ten  per  cent  yearly  interest.  It  was  a  bare- 
faced imposition  of  a  heavy  tax  on  commerce  for  the 
benefit  of  speculators,  which  San  Francisco  resented 
with  profound  indignation. 

"Now  it  had  been  claimed  that  Latham  was 
pledged  against  the  scheme,  and  that,  knowing  he 
could  not  be  moved  to  favor  it,  he  was  sent  to  the 
senate  by  the  bulkheaders'  influence,  to  get  him  out 
of  the  way.  If  so  they  calculated  without  their  true 
host.  Governor  Downey  lacked  experience,  but  not 
resolution,  arid  when  the  enrolled  bill  went  to  him  for 
the  executive  sanction  he  vetoed  it. 

"  The  bulkheaders  were  boiling  with  wrath ;  San 
Francisco  went  into  ecstacies.  The  citizens  demanded 
a  visit  from  the  little  governor  of  Irish  birth  and 
iron  backbone,  and  when  he  reluctantly  consented, 
they  met  him  at  the  Sacramento  boat  with  a  torch- 
light procession  that  shamed  every  precedent  in  that 
line.  They  escorted  him  to  his  temporary  residence 
with  music,  and  banners,  and  cheers,  through  streets 
illuminated  with  bonfires,  costly  pyrotechnics,  and 
transparencies,  exhibiting  mottoes  of  welcome,  and 
with  rockets,  roman  candles,  and  triumphal  arches 
over  the  route," 


CHAPTER  V. 

LIFE  OF  GEORGE  CLEMENT  PERKINS. 

ANCESTRY,  PARENTAGE,  AND  EDUCATION — AT  SEA— INTERVIEW  WITH  KING 
OSCAR  —  ARRIVAL  IN  CALIFORNIA  —  STORE-KEEPING  AT  OROVILLE  — 
GOODALL,  NELSON,  AND  PERKINS — PACIFIC  COAST  RAILWAY— OTHER 
ENTERPRISES— POLITICAL  CAREER — GOVERNOR  OF  CALIFORNIA — CHARI- 
TABLE AND  FRATERNAL  SOCIETIES — WIFE  AND  CHILDREN— APPEARANCE 
AND  CHARACTER. 

THAT  one  man  in  his  life  plays  many  parts  is  a  say- 
ing that  applies  more  generally  to  the  citizens  of 
California  than  to  any  community  in  the  world. 
There  are  thousands  of  those  citizens  who  before 
reaching  middle  life  have  engaged  in  a  dozen  or  per- 
haps a  score  of  occupations.  Beginning  frequently 
with  mining,  we  find  them  equally  at  home  as  mer- 
chants, farmers,  doctors,  lawyers,  professors,  or 
preachers,  ending  their  career  not  infrequently  as 
members  of  the  national  legislature,  or  holding  in 
their  adopted  state  offices  of  trust  and  responsibility. 

As  a  type  of  our  California-made  men,  of  those 
whose  energy  and  long-continued  toil,  whose  fore- 
sight and  judgment,  whose  strict  adherence  to  well- 
defined  and  comprehensive  plans  have  fashioned  their 
own  and  their  country's  fortunes,  we  may  point  with 
pride  to  George  Clement  Perkins,  who  began  life  as 
a  sailor  boy,  became  successively  a  miner,  a  clerk,  a 
store-keeper,  a  farmer,  a  banker,  a  shipowner,  a  rail- 
road president,  and  governor  of  the  state,  and  with 
numberless  enterprises  tending  to  the  common  good 
he  has  been  for  years  connected.  By  such  men 
the  homes  of  California  have  been  established  ;  by 

(138) 


GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  139 

them  the  land  has  been  enriched  and  beautified, 
its  resources  developed,  its  commerce  and  agricul- 
ture expanded,  until  to-day  a  leading  rank  has  been 
attained  among  commercial  and  agricultural  states. 

It  was  in  October  1855  when  Mr  Perkins  first 
landed  in  San  Francisco.  He  was  at  that  time  a 
stout-hearted  and  self-reliant  youth,  about  sixteen 
years  of  age,  of  sanguine  and  cheerful  temperament, 
not  easily  discouraged,  and  with  an  immense  capacity 
for  work.  Investing  his  few  remaining  dollars  in  a 
shotgun,  a  revolver,  and  a  pick  and  shovel — the  reg- 
ulation outfit  of  those  days — he  went  to  work  on  the 
wharf,  and  earned  his  passage  to  Sacramento,  en 
route  for  the  mines. 

Born  on  the  23d  of  August  1839,  in  the  seaport 
of  Kennebunkport,  Maine,  Mr  Perkins*  ancestry  is 
traced  back  to  the  days  when  Sir  Ferdinand  Georges 
received  from  James  I  a  patent  to  the  territory  lying 
between  the  fortieth  and  forty-eighth  parallels,  and 
was  appointed  governor  general  of  New  England.  Of 
English  descent,  his  forefathers  were  among  the  earli- 
est settlers  in  Maine.  They  were  earnest,  laborious, 
and  strong-headed  people,  of  deep  religious  convic- 
tions. Some  of  them  entered  the  professions ;  some 
were  farmers  or  mechanics  ;  and  not  a  few  were  mar- 
iners. All  were  men  of  powerful  physique,  capable 
of  great  endurance,  and  possessed  of  remarkable  vital- 
ity, without  an  exception  transcending  the  scriptural 
limit  of  life  by  a  half-score  of  years.  His  father, 
Clement  Perkins,  was  engaged  as  sailor  and  officer  on 
vessels  trading  with  the  West  Indies,  and  was  also  the 
owner  of  several  small  fields  of  land  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  his  homestead,  though  such  was  the  poverty 
of  the  soil  that  only  by  the  use  of  seaweed  and  other 
fertilizers  could  it  be  made  to  yield  a  scanty  crop. 
His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Lucinda  Fair- 
field,  was  a  relative  of  Governor  Fairfield,  and  also 
of  Governor  King,  one  of  the  earliest  governors  of 
Maine,  after  its  segregation  from  Massachusetts. 


140  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

His  two  brothers  are  respected  citizens  of  Califor- 
nia at  this  date,  one  of  whom  served  with  gal- 
lantry in  the  civil  war  under  Admiral  Farragut.  Of 
his  two  sisters,  the  younger,  Caroline  Amelia,  still 
lives  at  the  old  homestead  in  Kennebunkport,  and 
the  elder,  Ernestine,  is  the  wife  of  Henry  Maling,  of 
the  well-known  firm  of  Byron  Greenough  and  com- 
pany, of  Portland,  Maine. 

In  early  boyhood  his  training  was  very  strict. 
Before  and  after  school  he  was  required  to  work  on 
the  farm,  while  the  sabbath,  with  its  treadmill  of  re- 
ligious exactions,  was  the  hardest  day  of  the  week. 
His  tuition,  three  months  out  of  the  twelve,  was  of  an 
elementary  kind.  The  residue  of  the  year  he  passed 
on  the  farm,  where,  from  principle,  the  most  rigid 
economy  was  practised  by  all.  As  a  schoolboy,  he 
cared  more  for  sport  than  for  books,  being  only  an 
average  scholar,  and  having  no  marked  tastes  for  spe- 
cial studies.  He  had,  from  an  early  age,  a  passion 
for  the  sea,  and  as  he  grew,  his  thirst  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  mathematics,  geography,  and  astronomy  be- 
came so  great  that  in  these  branches  he  excelled. 
To  become  the  captain  of  a  vessel  was  his  ambition. 

In  his  twelfth  year  he  applied  to  the  captain  of  the 
ship  Golden  Eagle,  then  about  to  sail  for  New  Orleans, 
for  the  position  of  cabin-boy,  but  was  refused,  on  account 
of  his  youth.  Thereupon,  he  secreted  himself  in  the 
hold,  and  after  leaving  port  was  accepted,  and  signed 
articles  as  one  of  the  crew.  The  next  four  years  of 
his  life  he  passed  at  sea,  making  several  voyages  to 
Europe,  and  encountering  perils  and  enduring  hard- 
ships enough  to  satisfy  even  his  craving  for  adventure. 

On  one  occasion,  while  voyaging  from  St  Johns  to 
Dublin  in  the  ship  Lizzie  Thompson,  a  mutiny  broke  out, 
the  ship  leaking  dangerously.  The  commander,  who 
had  observed  the  young  sailor's  boldness  and  resolu- 
tion, sought  his  advice.  "  Go  for  them  with  a  belay- 
ing pin,"  was  George's  answer.  The  mutineers  were 
quickly  subdued ;  fatal  bloodshed  was  avoided,  and  the 


GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  141 

ship  returned  to  St  Johns  for  repairs.  On  board  of 
this  vessel  there  were  four  young  and  untried  appren- 
tices, who,  thoroughly  demoralized  by  the  recent 
mutiny  and  disaster  to  the  ship,  begged  him  to  help 
them  escape.  Acting  on  the  spur  of  a  generous  and 
sympathetic  impulse,  he  got  them  into  a  boat,  and, 
drifting  down  the  tide,  conveyed  them  safely  on  board 
an  outgoing  ship.  Returning  a  few  hours  later,  the 
captain  inquired  angrily  what  he  had  done  with  them- 
He  frankly  told  him,  adding :  "  I  know  I  am  in  the 
wrong,  but  they  haven't  got  the  making  of  sailors  in 
them,  and  I  thought  they'd  better  go  home."  Thirty- 
five  years  later  one  of  these  runaways,  after  serving 
in  the  war,  and  making  his  fortune  in  Colorado,  called 
at  the  office  of  Governor  Perkins  to  express  his  grat- 
itude for  the  deliverance. 

At  Christiana,  on  one  of  his  voyages,  Perkins  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  would  see  the  celebrated  Swedish 
King  Oscar.  In  company  with  a  sailor  lad  by. the 
name  of  Jack  Branscomb,  approaching  the  royal  gar- 
dens, he  was  confronted  with  an  impassable  moat. 
But  the  boy  had  made  up  his  mind,  and  would  not 
be  balked  of  his  purpose.  After  careful  search  he 
discovered  under  the  moat  a  narrow  tunnel,  the 
mouth  of  which  was  choked  with  rubbish.  Into  this 
he  plunged,  Branscomb  following  at  his  heels,  and 
made  his  way  to  the  opposite  entrance.  On  emerg- 
ing they  were  instantly  surrounded  by  guards,  who 
could  not  understand  their  explanation,  3- et  attempted 
to  conceal  them;  but  the  monarch  with  his  retinue 
was  approaching,  one  of  whose  party  stepped  forward 
and  asked  their  business.  Young  Perkins,  acting  as 
spokesman,  for  his  comrade  was  shaking  as  with  an  ague, 
boldly  made  answer  that  he  had  come  to  see  his 
majesty,  King  Oscar  I  ;  they  were  from  Boston,  and 
when  they  returned  home  would  be  proud  to  tell  their 
friends  that  they  had  been  face  to  face  with  the  king." 
"  Well,"  said  the  other,  in  perfect  English,  "You  have 
seen  him  ;  I  am  the  king,"  At  the  same  time  he 


142  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

handed  each  of  them  several  coins  as  souvenirs  of 
their  visit.  In  1884,  thirty  years  after  this  adven- 
ture, Branscomb  turned  up  on  the  California  coast, 
under  the  following  circumstances:  One  day,  while  on 
board  a  pilot  boat,  bound  for  Monterey,  in  company 
with  Commodore  Allen  and  a  party  of  friends,  Gov. 
Perkins  observed  that  one  of  the  sailors  was  eying  him 
intently.  "  Who  is  the  governor ;  what  state  does 
he  come  from  ?"  inquired  this  sailor  from  another  of 
the  crew.  "  Prom  Maine,"  was  the  reply.  "  I  thought 
I  knew  him.  You  ask  him  if  he  ever  met  with  a 
boy  by  the  name  of  Jack  Branscomb,  who  served  on 
board  the  ship  Luna."  And  Jack  Branscomb  it 
was — the  same  Jack,  who  thirty  years  before  had 
trembled  in  the  presence  of  royalty.  It  is  almost 
unnecessary  to  state  that  Mr  Perkins  at  once  came 
forward  and  greeted  him  as  an  old  comrade,  and  soon 
provided  a  place  for  him  as  boatswain  on  one  of  his 
ships. 

During  the  voyage  from  St  John's  to  Dublin  and 
Liverpool,  it  happened  that  among  his  comrades  was 
an  old  sailor,  recently  returned  from  California,  and 
mainly  through  his  persuasion,  he  determined  to  seek 
his  fortune  there.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  in  San 
Francisco  he  took  the  steamer  for  Sacramento,  whence 
he  walked  to  Butte  county,  carrying  on  his  back  his 
tools,  blankets,  and  gun,  and  for  provisions,  some 
crackers  and  bacon.  In  Butte,  Plumas,  Sierra, 
Tehama,  and  Lassen  counties  he  worked  for  several 
months  at  placer  mining,  sleeping  in  cloth  tents,  under 
trees  or  ledges  of  rock,  and  living  as  best  he  could. 

The  proverbial  sailor's  luck  deserted  him,  and  in  a 
temporary  fit  of  despondency,  he  concluded  to  go  to 
San  Francisco  and  ship  for  Frazer  river,  the  excite- 
ment regarding  this  point  being  at  its  height.  After 
reaching  the  city,  he  determined  that  California  con- 
tained good  things  enough  to  satisfy  any  man  that 
had  the  nerve  to  wrestle  for  them,  and  that  he  would 
return  to  the  point  where  he  had  first  failed  and  make 


GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  143 

another  trial.  Being  without  means,  he  worked  his 
passage  on  a  steamboat  to  Sacramento  and  again 
walked  from  there  to  Oroville,  or  Ophir,  as  it  was  then 
termed.  On  his  return  he  secured  employment,  driv- 
ing a  mule  team,  at  which  he  was  not  expert,  as  the 
reader  will  imagine,  but  the  will  that  caused  him  to 
retrace  his  steps,  soon  gave  him  the  mastery  over  the 
avocation. 

In  the  following  year  he  obtained  employment,  in 
a  store  at  Oroville,  as  porter.  Now  he  considered 
himself  fairly  on  the  road  to  fortune.  Building  a 
small  cabin,  doing  his  own  cooking,  and  practising  the 
most  rigid  economy,  he  lived  on  one  sixth  of  his 
income,  and  in  a  little  more  than  two  years,  accumu- 
lated $800.  With  this  sum,  and  $1,200  obtained  on 
his  note,  he  purchased  a  ferry  at  Long's  bar,  which 
he  improved  and  shortly  after  sold  at  a  profit  of 
$1,000.  Placing  his  money  at  interest  he  returned  to 
the  store  at  Oroville,  now  at  a  salary  of  $80  per 
month.  Soon  afterward  he  was  promoted  to  a  clerk- 
ship, and  in  less  than  three  years,  business  being  then 
at  a  low  ebb,  became  the  owner  of  the  establishment. 
For  the  first  month  his  sales  amounted  to  $4,000  ;  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year  they  had  increased  to  $15,- 
000,  and  on  the  second  to  $25,000  a  month.  He 
then  erected  a  flour  mill,  and  through  his  strict  atten- 
tion to  business,  his  liberality  and  fair  dealing,  grad- 
ually enlarged  his  operations,  until  his  trade  in  pro- 
duce, provisions,  groceries,  and  general  merchandise 
amounted  to  $500,000  a  year.  All  this  he  had  accom- 
plished when  little  more  than  twenty  years  of  age. 

Until  1875,  when  he  transferred  to  his  brother  the 
charge  of  his  business,  Mr  Perkins  made  his  head- 
quarters at  Oroville.  Meanwhile,  to  his  other  inter- 
ests were  added  sheep  and  cattle  ranches.  In  mining 
and  the  lumber  business  he  was  also  largely  engaged  ; 
at  Chico,  in  connection  with  N.  D.  Hideout  and  oth- 
ers, he  established  the  bank  of  Butte  county,  of  which 
he  became  a  director 


144  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

During  the  flood  of  1862  the  fertile  valleys  between 
Oroville  and  Marysville,  the  latter  being  the  base  of 
supplies  for  the  former,  were  overflowed  and  com- 
munication cut  off.  Provisions  could  not  be  had 
except  by  descending  the  Feather  river,  the  only  hope 
of  relief.  Perkins,  having  built  a  skiff,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  single  volunteer,  who  left  him  after  two 
or  three  dangerous  riffles  had  been  passed,  dropped 
down  the  stream  to  Marysville,  noting  carefully  the 
dangerous  obstructions  in  its  channel.  There  he 
chartered  a  steamer,  and,  loading  her  with  provisions, 
returned  within  a  few  days  to  the  relief  of  the  needy 
people.  This  was  the  largest  steamboat  that  ever 
ascended  the  river  as  far  as  Oroville,  only  one  small 
stern-wheeled  steamer  having  made  the  trip  before. 

In  1872  Mr  Perkins  accepted  a  partnership  in  the 
firm  of  Goodall  &  Nelson,  the  firm  being  known  as 
Goodall,  Nelson  &  Perkins ;  they  then  incorporated 
as  the  Goodall,  Nelson  &  Perkins  Steamship  com- 
pany, and  later  incorporated  the  Pacific  Coast  Steam- 
ship company.  At  the  date  mentioned  they  had  but 
two  or  three  small  steamboats  in  operation,  running 
as  far  south  as  Monterey,  and  northward  only  to 
Tomales  bay.  To  these,  others  were  added  from  time 
to  time,  until  in  1881  they  had  a  fleet  of  twenty-one 
steamers,  plying  from  Sitka  on  the  north,  to  Mexico 
on  the  south,  and  to  some  thirty  intermediate  ports, 
several  of  them  being  vessels  of  from  1,200  to  1,500 
tons.  In  that  year  the  company  disposed  of  its  inter- 
ests to  Henry  Yillard  and  his  associates,  who  had 
long  competed  with  them  for  the  carrying  trade  of 
the  coast,  receiving,  however,  a  contract  to  manage 
the  business  for  a  term  of  seven  years,  which  was 
later  extended  to  twelve  years.  At  the  same  time 
they  secured  the  agency  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  company,  having  then,  also,  the  control  of 
the  Pacific  Coast  Steamship  company.  The  Pacific 
Steam  Whaling  company,  with  Perkins  as  vice-presi- 
dent, and  the  Arctic  Oil  Works,  of  which  he  was  presi- 


GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  145 

dent,  were  also  organized  by  the  members  of  this 
firm  and  their  associates,  and  by  them  were  built  the 
first  steam  whalers  constructed  on  the  Pacific  coast.  ^ 
These  vessels  were  sheathed  with  imported  iron- 
wood,  which  resists  better  than  steel  the  shock  of 
the  ice-floes.  Under  the  head  of  Routes  and  Trans- 
portation I  treat  at  length  the  operations  of  Goodall, 
Perkins  and  company,  as  a  subject  belonging  to  that 
department.  Mr  Perkins  is  in  his  element  in  this 
great  business  and  has  been  a  large  factor  in  building 
it  up. 

yAmong  other  enterprises  with  which  he  is  con- 
^ected  may  be  mentioned  the  railroad  from  CufFey's 
/cove  to  the  redwood  timber  lands  of  Mendocino 
county,  in  which  he  is  largely  interested.  He  is  also 
president  of  the  Pacific  Coast  railway — a  railroad 
running  through  Santa  Barbara  and  San  Luis  Obispo 
counties  and  terminating  at  Port  Harford.  He  is  a 
director  and  large  owner  in  the  corporation  of  Starr 
and  company,  who  operate  the  largest  flour-mills  and 
warehouses  on  the  Pacific  coast.  He  is  also  a  director 
and  owner  in  the  bank  of  Butte  county  in  Chico,  and 
the  California  State  bank,  located  at  Sacramento,  and 
a  director  in  the  First  National  bank  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, one  of  the  strongest  financial  institutions  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  He  is  also  vice-president  of  the  West 
Coast  Land  company,  and,  in  conjunction  with  his 
partners,  the  owner  of  three- tenths  of  its  estates  in 
San  Luis  Obispo  county. 

He  has  been  largely  interested  in  quartz  and  gravel 
mines  in  almost  every  mining  county  in  the  state,  and 
elsewhere  on  the  coast,  and  especially  in  iron  mines 
near  Puget  sound. 

In  1860  Mr  Perkins  cast  his  first  vote  for  Abraham  / 
Lincoln,  and  has  always  been  a  most  ardent  republi- 
can, though  not  a  partisan  in  the  extreme  sense  of  the 
term.  He  was  an  abolitionist,  and  uncompromising 
in  his  loyalty  to  the  government.  His  motto  was, 
"  The  union  first,  last,  and  all  the  time,"  but  he  did 

C.  B.— II.    10 


146  GOVERNMENT -CALIFORNIA. 

not  believe  that  the  negro,  until  properly  educated, 
should  be  given  the  ballot,  which  he  looks  upon  as 
a  sacred  right  that  should  be  placed  in  the  possession 
of  the  intelligent  class  only. 

Soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  the  citi- 
zens of  Oroville  were  about  to  celebrate  the  Fourth 
of  July  with  more  than  usual  patriotic  spirit,  and 
from  the  flagstaff  in  the  court-house  plaza  the  stars 
and  stripes  were  to  be  unfurled.  During  the  preced- 
ing night  the  halyards  had  been  cut,  presumably  by 
some  evil-minded  secessionist.  For  a  moment  it 
seemed  that  the  damage  could  not  be  repaired.  A 
crowd  had  assembled,  and  were  angrily  discussing  the 
outrage,  when  a  yourig  man  stepped  forward,  and 
tying  the  halyards  around  his  waist,  climbed  to  the 
truck  and  rove  them  with  his  own  hands.  In  an 
instant  the  nation's  standard  was  floating  in  the 
breeze.  The  lad's  name  wTas  Perkins. 

In  1869  he  was  elected  on  the  republican  ticket  to 
the  state  senate,  for  the  senatorial  district  of  Butte 
county,  over  George  W.  Colby,  an  able  democrat, 
whose  party  was  largely  in  the  majority.  And  in 
further  recognition  of  his  usefulness  and  sterling  qual- 
ities he  was  chosen,  in  1873,  to  fill  the  unexpired 
term  of  Senator  Boucher,  deceased,  for  the  senatorial 
district  comprising  Butte,  Plumas  and  Lassen.  He 
had  made  himself  popular  in  the  community  by  his 
public  spirit,  enterprise,  and  generosity.  He  seldom 
refused  credit  to  his  patrons,  and  never  for  provisions 
or  necessaries ;  and  very  rarely  did  those  whom  he 
trusted  take  advantage  of  his  liberality,  for  to  impose 
on  the  "  captain,"  as  he  was  termed  after  his  exploit 
during  the  flood  of  1862,  was  considered  the  essence 
of  meanness.  In  the  senate  Mr  Perkins  was  known 
for  his  practical  ability,  industry,  business-like  meth- 
ods, independent  thinking,  liberal  ideas,  and  a  con- 
scientious ambition  to  be  the  actual  servant  of  the 
people.  As  a  member  of  the  finance  committee  he 
presented  a  minority  report,  signed  only  by  himself, 


GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  147 

favoring  the  passage  of  a  bill  framed  to  support  the 
state  university,  which  was  afterward  adopted  by  the 
senate,  and  an  appropriation  was  made  for  the  first  time 
granting  state  aid  to  the  university  of  California ;  for 
he  believed  the  opportunity  to  acquire  a  higher  educa- 
tion to  be  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  within  the  gift 
of  the  state.  On  the  committee  on  claims,  of  which 
he  was  appointed  chairman  by  the  democratic  lieu- 
tenant-governor, Holden,  this  being  the  only  appoint- 
ment of  a  republican  to  such  an  office,  on  those  on 
public  lands,  and  on  commerce  and  navigation  he  ren- 
dered important  services,  among  which  may  be  men- 
tioned the  bills,  of  which  he  was  the  author  and 
brought  forward  and  labored  to  have  passed,  relative 
to  school  and  swamp  lands;  one  granting  aid  to  agri- 
cultural societies,  and  another  conferring  upon  juries 
the  power  to  determine  whether  the  sentence  for 
murder  should  be  death  or  imprisonment  for  life, 
thereby  saving  the  community  from  many  a  criminal 
whom  a  sympathetic  jury  could  seldom  get  sufficient 
evidence  to  convict  but  for  this  alternative.  He  also 
was  very  successful  in  passing  many  local  bills  that 
immediately  affected  the  interests  of  the  counties  he 
represented  and  were  demanded  by  his  constituents. 
To  him  is  also  due  in  part  the  rejection  of  seriate 
bill,  No.  243;  an  act  to  empower  the  counties  of  Mer- 
ced, Stanislaus,  Fresno,  Tulare,  and  Kern  to  aid  in 
the  construction  of  a  railroad  in  said  counties,  by 
which  it  was  proposed  to  give  the  San  Joaquin  Rail- 
road company,  really  the  Central  Pacific  company, 
every  alternate  section  of  land  through  which  it  was 
to  be  built.  This  measure,  which  would  have  deprived 
the  state  of  a  valuable  portion  of  its  domain,  passed 
both  branches  of  the  legislature  in  the  session  of 
1869-70.  Governor  Haight  vetoed  the  bill,  and 
Mr  Perkins  was  the  only  republican  sena.tor  who,  con- 
sidering the  measure  purely  on  its  merits,  felt  confident 
as  a  business  proposition  the  road  would  pay  to  build 
without  state  aid;  he  therefore  believed  it  his  duty  to 


]48  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

put  aside  all  partisanship  and  voted  to  sustain  the  veto 
of  the  democratic  executive. 

In  1879  affairs  were  sadly  out  of  joint  in  California. 
The  epoch  was  perhaps  the  most  serious  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  state.  The  new  constitution  had  been 
adopted,  and  on  the  1st  of  January  1880  became  the 
organic  law.  Many  of  its  provisions — especially  those 
aimed  against  capital — were  regarded  by  the  conser- 
vative class  as  fraught  with  mischief.  It  hampered 
legislation ;  introducd  a  new  and  untried  system  of 
judiciary;  made  radical  innovations  in  the  revenue 
system ;  favored  non-resident  property  holders ;  and 
declared  vacant  every  office  in  the  state,  without  jus- 
tice or  discrimination.  It  legislated  too  much ;  it  was 
lacking  in  clearness  and  precision;  all  the  benefits 
that  it  proposed  to  confer  could  be  accomplished  bet- 
ter by  legislation. 

In  the  fall  of  this  year  Mr  Perkins  received  the 
republican  nomination  for  governor.  Opposed  to  him 
were  Dr  Hugh  Glenn,  the  democratic  nominee,  and 
Mr  White,  the  nominee  of  the  workingrnen's  party. 
The  democratic  nominee  was  put  forward  as  a  man  of 
the  people  ;  as  one  free  from  all  sympathy  or  connec- 
tion with  monopoly,  selected  as  the  candidate  for  the 
new  constitution  party,  and  supported  in  his  candi- 
dacy, with  all  its  energy  and  tact,  by  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Chronicle,  a  republican  journal  of  great  influence, 
and  by  the  entire  democratic  press.  Mr  Perkins  had 
been  outspoken  and  uncompromising  in  his  opposition 
to  that  instrument,  while  among  the  unthinking  mul- 
titude his  reputed  wealth  and  connection  with  the 
steamship  company  and  other  large  enterprises  made 
it  easy  for  his  artful  opponents  to  decry  him  as  a 
monopolist  and  enemy  of  the  people. 

The  odds  against  him  were  great,  and  he  knew  that 
if  the  election  were  to  take  place  at  once  he  would  be 
defeated.  The  campaign  was  short — only  sixty  days. 
The  emergency  called  forth  the  supreme  effort  of  his 
life.  Yet  he  preferred  to  lose  the  fight  rather  than 


GEORGE  C.   PERKINS.  149 

strengthen  himself  by  entering  into  any  combinations, 
and  he  distinctly  refused  to  make  any  promises  of  pre- 
ferment, express  or  implied,  that  were  conditional  on 
his  election.  In  the  short  time  allotted  he  canvassed 
the  state  from  San  Diego  to  Siskiyou,  often  speaking 
two  or  three  times  a  day  in  cities,  towns,  and  villages, 
or  at  wayside  houses.  He  was  frequently  greeted 
with  ovations,  though  encountering  everywhere  a 
determined  opposition  from  those  who  favored  the  new 
constitution,  which,  however,  now  that  it  had  become 
the  law  of  the  land  he  declared  should  be  recognized 
and  upheld  by  all  as  such  ;  and  he  pledged  his  honor 
that  if  he  were  elected  he  would  carry  out  its  provi- 
sions to  the  best  of  his  ability. 

By  those  who  listened  to  Mr  Perkins'  speeches 
during  this  canvass  it  is  related  that  he  displayed  a 
familiarity  with  the  condition  and  wants  of  all  classes 
of  the  people  such  as  no  man  could  possess  whose  life 
had  not  been  interwoven  with  theirs. 

One  of  themselves,  and  having  risen  to  wealth  and 
distinction  among  them,  he  was  thoroughly  at  home 
on  all  topics  in  which  they  were  interested.  With 
quickness  of  perception  and  soundness  of  judgment  he 
combined  a  thorough  knowledge  of  character  gained 

o  o  & 

by  contact  and  competition  with  his  fellows.  Though 
making  no  display  of  rhetoric,  yet  his  views  were 
expressed  in  clear,  forcible  language,  spiced  with  a  vein 
of  good-humor,  which  softens  animosity  and  inspires 
trust.  His  manner  was  always  unequivocal  and 
frank,  and  he  impressed  all  who  heard  him  with  his 
integrity  of  purpose.  Wherever  he  spoke  new  friends 
sprang  up  about  him,  and  the  old  ones  already  know- 
ing the  man  personally,  or  being  familiar  with  his  rep- 
utation, took  off  their  coats  and  worked  for  him.  His 
election  to  the  governorship  by  a  plurality  of  more 
than  20.000  over  each  of  his  opponents  shows  a  bril- 
liant triumph,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  California 
politics.  The  result  was  a  singular  reversal  of  the 
vote  on  the  new  constitution,  presenting  the  anomaly 


150  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

of  electing  a  man  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  the  state 
who  would  be  called  upon  to  execute  the  provisions 
of  a  political  chart  to  which  his  convictions  and  prin- 
ciples were  avowedly  opposed  ;  a  capitalist,  and  at  the 
head  of  a  powerful  corporation,  chosen  by  the  very 
people  whose  outcry  was  against  capital  and  corpora- 
tions. This  phenomenon  is  not  explained  by  any  one 
cause  alone,  but  the  outcome  was  mainly  due  to  the 
appreciation  of  Mr  Perkins'  character  and  worth.  The 
compliment  paid  him  by  the  people  was  magnificent, 
and  without  precedent.  He  proved  himself  worthy 
of  it,  however,  for  even  his  political  adversaries 
acknowledge  that  he  fulfilled  his  pledge  regarding  the 
new  constitution  faithfully. 

Of  the  several  wholesome  measures  inaugurated 
during  his  administration,  and  of  the  valuable  recom- 
mendations contained  in  his  inaugural  address  and 
messages,  it  is  impossible  here  to  make  more  than  a 
passing  mention.  Not  least  among  them  was  the  plan 
proposed  by  him  for  utilizing  the  labor  of  convicts  at 
the  state  prison,  where,  under  the  provisions  of  the 
new  constitution,  no  further  contracts  for  such  labor 
could  be  made  after  the  first  of  January  1882.  For 
the  movement  of  the  crops  there  were  needed  annu- 
ally from  25,000,000  to  30,000,000  grain  bags,  for  the 
purchase  of  which,  in  Calcutta  and  elsewhere,  more 
than  $2,000,000  a  year  was  sent  out  of  the  country. 
To  prevent  this  drain  upon  our  resources,  and  at  the 
same  time  lessen  the  burden  of  taxation  by  reducing 
the  expenses  of  the  prison,  and  also  to  abolish  the 
competition  of  convict  wTith  free  labor,  he  recom- 
mended the  introduction  of  a  jute  factory  at  the  state 
penitentiary.  When  he  entered  upon  his  duties  he 
was  confronted  with  deficiency  bills  amounting  to 
$218,000.  These  were  shortly  paid  off,  and  at  the 
close  of  his  administration  there  were  only  $600,000 
of  outstanding  bonds  in  private  hands  (the  state  hold- 
ing balance  in  treasury  for  school  purposes),  and  in 
the  treasury  $500,000  to  redeem  them.  Many  pub- 


GEORGE  C.  PERKINS.  151 

lie  buildings  wore  erected;  among  them  the  normal 
schools  at  San  Jose  and  Los  Angeles,  and  additions 
made  to  the  state  university,  the  insane  asylum  at 
Stockton,  and  the  institution  for  the  care  of  the  deaf 
and  dumb,  and  the  blind,  and  the  state  prisons  at 
San  Quentin  and  Folsom. 

His  appointments  were  in  the  spirit  of  civil  service 
reform,  with  the  happy  result  that  no  one  of  his 
appointees  betrayed  his  trust.  The  pardoning  nower 
he  exercised  freely  and  yet  with  care. 

A  few  weeks  before  the  conclusion  of  his  term  a 
banquet  was  given  to  Governor  Perkins  in  Sacra- 
ramento,  by  the  leading  citizens  of  California,  regard- 
less of  party,  in  token  of  "  their  appreciation  of  ser- 
vices to  the  state  and  people."  Though  not  a  formal 
gathering,  and  intended  rather  as  a  compliment  to  the 
man  than  a  tribute  to  the  official,  the  splendor  of  its 
appointments  and  the  sincere  expressions  of  esteem 
and  good-will,  from  men  of  all  political  creeds,  gave 
to  this  entertainment  more  than  a  passing  signifi- 
cance. By  N.  Greene  Curtis,  who,  though  a  strong 
democrat,  was  chosen  to  preside  on  this  occasion,  a 
cordial  welcome  was  extended  to  the  governor,  to 
whom  he  afterward  presented,  on  behalf  of  the  citi- 
zens, a  case  containing  eighty-four  pieces  of  solid  sil- 
ver plate.  That  men  of  all  parties  should  join  to  do 
him  honor  is  stronger  praise  than  any  words  of 
mine. 

In  1886  Mr  Perkins  was  a  candidate  for  the  United 
States  senate,  and  received  a  handsome  vote,  though 
the  ultimate  choice  fell  upon  Leland  Stanford. 

During  his  official  career  the  governor  delivered  in 
various  portions  of  the  state  many  lectures  for  the 
benefit  of  churches  and  benevolent  institutions.  In 
the  smaller  towns  people  assembled  from  a  distance 
of  twenty-five  miles  to  listen  to  his  discourses  on 
familiar  topics. 

Mr  Perkins,  while  not  a  graduate  of  any  college, 
has  an  education  that  entitles  him  to  be  classed  as  a 


152  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

fair  representative  of  a  government  whose  affairs  have 
been  largely  shaped  and  controlled  by  self-taught 
and  self-made  men  possessed  of  character  and  ability. 
He  not  only  acquired  information  from  books,  for  he 
has  been  a  student  in  the  midst  of  business,  but  he 
has  his  share  of  that  wisdom  which  Bacon  says 
exists  outside  of  books  and  above  them.  With  the 
cause  of  charity  arid  of  philanthropy  he  has  for  many 
years  been  identified.  As  president  of  the  Boys'  and 
Girls'  Aid  society,  in  San  Francisco,  he  has  been 
an  enthusiastic  and  effective  worker  in  retrieving 
young  men  and  women  from  a  life  of  crime  and 
degredation  toward  which  they  had  taken  the  first 
step.  By  himself  and  others  the  institution  has 
been  built  up  from  the  most  meager  beginnings  to  its 
present  wide  scope  of  usefulness.  Since  his  connec- 
tion with  it  homes  have  been  found  for  more  than 
eleven  hundred  neglected  children,  ninety  per  cent  of 
whom  have  been  permanently  reformed.  To  many 
other  benevolent  associations,  including  the  Ladies' 
Relief  society,  kindergarten  schools,  boards  of  Masonic 
relief,  and  the  Old  Ladies'  home,  he  contributes  money 
freely,  and,  what  is  more  important,  also  his  earnest 
and  timely  labor.  His  religion  consists  largely  in 
doing  good  in  this  way. 

While  a  resident  of  Oroville  Mr  Perkins  became 
connected  with  the  masonic  order,  filling  most  of  the 
positions  of  the  Blue  lodge  from  junior  deacon  to 
master.  Later  he  was  elected  to  some  of  the  high- 
est offices  in  the  grand  lodge  of  free  and  accepted 
masons  of  California,  and  was  also  chosen  most  wor- 
shipful grand  master  of  the  grand  lodge  of  Califor- 
nia. During  the  great  conclave  of  1883  (when  more 
than  five  thousand  knights  templar  were  gathered  in 
San  Francisco,  coming  from  all  the  states  and  terri- 
tories of  the  union),  he  was  elected  the  grand  com- 
mander of  the  grand  commandery  of  knights  templar 
of  that  order  in  California.  He  is  also  a  member  of 
the  military  order  of  the  loyal  legion  of  the  United 


GEORGE   C.  PERKINS.  153 

States,  having  been  elected  for  valuable  assistance 
rendered  during  the  war,  although  he  was  not  in  the 
army. 

Among  other  positions  of  trust  which  Mr  Perkins 
has  held  it  may  be  mentioned  that  from  1879  until 
his  election  as  governor  he  was  president  of  the  San 
Francisco  chamber  of  commerce,  and  in  1884  he  was 
unanimously  elected  president  of  the  Art  association 
of  San  Francisco.  Between  1876  and  1880  he  was 
one  of  the  trustees  for  the  Napa  asylum  for  the  insane, 
being  the  only  republican  member  of  the  board.  He 
is  also  a  trustee  of  the  asylum  at  Berkeley  for  the 
deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  a  trustee  of  the  state  Mining 
bureau,  and  for  many  years  a  trustee  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  of  San  Francisco.  He  is  a  life  member  of 
the  Mechanic's  institute,  the  Astronomical  society  of 
the  Pacific,  the  state  geographical  society,  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  association,  and  of  a  number  of  liter- 
ary societies  and  social  clubs. 

In  1864  Mr  Perkins  was  married  at  Oroville  to 
Miss  Ruth  A.  Parker,  a  native  of  Cork,  and  the 
daughter  of  an  English  officer  in  the  excise  service. 
Of  this  lady  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  say  that  at  home, 
a  devotee  to  the  duties  of  wife  and  mother,  she  has 
faithfully  supplemented  the  life  of  her  husband  in  her 
sphere.  Of  their  seven  children,  the  eldest  son,  now 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  graduated  at  St  Matthew's 
college  in  San  Mateo  ;  and  the  second,  a  youth  of  six- 
teen, is  a  student  of  the  high  school  at  Oakland,  and 
was  appointed  in  1889  to  the  naval  academy  at  Annap- 
olis, and  successfully  passed  his  examination,  and  was 
honorably  admitted  a  cadet  to  the  academy.  The 
eldest  of  their  daughters  was  recently  married  to  Mr 
J.  E.  Adams,  a  member  of  a  wholesale  leather  firm, 
San  Francisco. 

To  most  of  my  readers  in  California  the  personnel 
of  the  ex-governor  is  already  familiar;  his  mild,  clear, 
grayish-brown  eyes,  his  dark  brown  hair,  now  threaded 
with  silver,  his  broad,  high  forehead,  and  firmly 


154  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

clasped  lips.  Considerably  above  medium  stature, 
very  erect,  five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  he  is  of 
large,  though  not  of  bulky,  frame,  a  compact,  well-knit 
figure.  His  constitution,  fortified  by  toil  and  expos- 
ure in  early  life  on  land  and  sea,  is  not  perceptibly 
impaired.  He  is  plain  and  unstudied  in  dress;  in 
manner  cordial  and  unaffected.  His  home  in  Oakland, 
where  he  has  resided  since  retiring  from  political  life, 
is  one  of  comfort  and  elegance,  though  his  habits  are 
simple  and  temperate,  and  his  personal  wants  few.  He 
is  a  pleasant  conversationalist,  and  as  an  after-dinner 
speaker  he  possesses  a  spice  of  good-humored  irony 
that  is  very  agreeable  and  all  his  own. 

This  is  he  who  began  to  be  his  own  guardian  at 
twelve  years  of  age  or  earlier,  and  has  leaned  upon  no 
one  since  ;  who,  landing  on  these  shores  friendless  and 
almost  penniless,  in  five  or  six  years  won  a  respectable 
place  among  the  merchants  of  northern  California. 
At  thirty,  senator;  at  forty,  governor:  while  in  both 
positions  attending  to  large  and  complex  personal 
affairs,  he  entered  upon  the  latter  office  at  a  period 
when  the  community  was  distracted  by  the  labor 
question,  the  Chinese  question,  the  debris  question, 
involving  a  controversy  of  extreme  importance  between 
the  farmers  and  hydraulic  miners  of  the  state ;  and 
the  perplexing  issues  connected  with  the  new  consti- 
tution. Fortunate  was  it  that  at  this  juncture  the 
state  had  at  its  helm  a  man  of  his  discretion  and  integ- 
rity ;  one  who  at  a  time  when  the  old  order  of  things 
having  passed  away  the  new  could  not  be  established 
until  chaos  had  been  overcome,  possessed  the  strength 
and  the  tact  to  control  the  machinery  of  a  govern- 
ment almost  revolutionized. 

He  appears  to  me  as  a  type  of  true  Americanism, 
upright,  charitable,  bold,  versatile,  and  laborious,  a 
conservator  and  a  benefactor.  Conspicuous  among 
the  builders  of  this  state  and  coast,  he  has  contributed 
to  California's  progress  by  his  talent  and  industry. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

POLITICAL  HISTORY  AND  GOVERNMENT   IN   CALIFORNIA. 

MISSION  ESTABLISHMENTS — CALIFORNIA  UNDER  SPANISH  AND  MEXICAN  K  TLE 
— ACQUISITION  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES — DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD — ORGANIZA- 
TION OF  GOVERNMENT — ELECTIONS  AND  LEGISLATIVE  PROCEEDINGS — THE 
JUDICIARY  AND  MILITARY — PARTY  POLITICS  AND  THE  PROGRESS  OF  AF- 
FAIRS. 

CONQUEST  and  occupation  north  of  the  ancient  Az- 
tec boundaries  in  Mexico  declined  with  the  waning  of 
the  Cortesian  era  of  adventure.  Treasure-hunting 
became  unprofitable,  the  gilded  cities  of  Cibola  proved 
a  fleeting  fancy,  and  even  the  pearls  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia eluded  search,  while  the  interoceanic  passage 
retreated  into  ice-bound  regions  before  the  disap- 
pointed explorers. 

Silver  mines  were  gradually  disclosed,  however, 
and  gave  impulse  to  road-making  and  town-building 
along  the  coast,  and  to  the  establishment  of  lines  of 
presidios  for  the  protection  of  advancing  settlements 
against  roaming  savages,  who,  unlike  the  gentler 
tribes  to  the  southward,  could  not  readily  be  made 
amenable  to  encomienda  enslavement.  So  far  the 
friars  had  followed  in  the  path  of  the  conquerors,  or 
accompanied  them  as  mediators.  Now  their  services 
were  invoked  to  prepare  the  way  for  subjugation,  al- 
though they  strove  in  the  interests  both  of  the  church 
and  themselves,  to  retain  the  control  acquired  at  such 
risk,  and  to  protect  the  natives  against  serfdom. 

With  the  advance  of  missionaries  into  Sonora,  in- 
terest in  the  opposite  peninsula  revived,  and  successful 
pearl-fishing  was  attended  by  several  futile  attempts 

(155) 


156  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA, 

to  form  settlements.  The  soil  was  too  barren.  But 
no  obstacle  could  stand  in  the  way  of  religious  zeal. 
The  Jesuits  undertook  the  task,  and  aided  by  contri- 
butions from  the  pious,  they  gradually  built  up  a  line 
of  missions  parallel  to  the  gulf  of  California.  The 
attendant  presidios  protected  the  growth  of  a  few 
farms  and  villages,  and  in  due  time  the  province  at- 
tained the  dignity  of  a  government. 

Thus  passed  two  centuries  without  any  northwest- 
ward extension  of  domain  beyond  the  Jesuit  estab- 
lishments of  Sonora  and  Lower  California.  Then 
came  news  of  the  Russian  entry  from  the  Asiatic  side, 
arousing  the  jealousy  of  Spain,  whose  government  be- 
came thereupon  impressed  with  the  need  of  a  refitting 
station  on  the  upper  coast  for  the  Manila  galleon,  to- 
gether with  the  desirability  of  carrying  the  presidio  line 
northward  into  the  land  of  the  encroaching  Apaches. 
Coupled  with  this  was  the  laudable  service  to  God 
and  Mammon  in  bringing  the  benighted  heathen 
within  church  bondage,  for  the  benefit  of  an  endowed 
priesthood,  and  the  pockets  of  prospective  settlers. 

The  energetic  visitador- general,  Galvez,  was  ac- 
cordingly charged  to  occupy  Upper  California,  which 
he  did'in  1769,  by  means  of  a  sea  and  land  expedition 
from  the  peninsula,  fitted  out  mainly  from  mission  re- 
sources, the  troops  and  friars  being  under  the  command 
of  Governor  Portola  and  Father  Junipero  Serra.  With 
this  force  was  founded  San  Diego  mission,  protected 
by  a  guard  under  Rivera  y  Moncada,  and  soon  after 
by  a  presidio.  This  first  result  was  not  attained  with- 
out many  troubles,  notably  from  delayed  supply  ves- 
sels, and  the  prevalence  of  scurvy,  which  almost 
caused  it  to  be  abandoned.  In  the  following  year  was 
established  the  chief  station  and  future  capital  in  the 
presidio  of  Monterey,  enclosed  at  first  within  a  par- 
allelogram of  adobe,  with  tile  roofing,  upon  an  outer 
stone  foundation,  divided  into  barrack  rooms,  family 
suites,  warehouses,  shops,  corrals,  and  church.  In 
time,  with  conversion  and  assured  security,  houses 


PEDRO  FAGES.  157 

were  built  around  it,  forming  a  settlement,  in  which 
were  domiciled  natives,  who  from  the  first  were  im- 
pressed both  for  mission  and  barrack  labor. 

Between  this  station  and  San  Diego  rose  several 
missions,  five  being  in  existence  in  1772.  By  this 
time  the  Franciscans,  who  had  undertaken  the  task, 
became  so  impressed  with  the  fertility  and  prospects 
of  the  new  field,  that  they  hastened  to  secure  its  ex- 
clusive control  by  surrendering  their  Lower  California 
foundations  to  the  Dominicans.  Nineteen  friars  were 
consequently  obtained  for  Alta  California,  subject  to 
the  president  at  the  head  mission  of  San  Cdrlos,  near 
Monterey.  Nevertheless  their  labors  were  hampered 
by  the  scanty  means  at  their  disposal  for  planting 
new  missions  and  raising  sufficient  crops  at  the  exist- 
ing establishments  to  attract  and  retain  converts,  for 
the  souls  of  savages  are  to  be  found  in  their  stomachs. 
Rude  huts  and  outlying  rancherias  constituted  for 
some  time  the  chief  abode  of  the  fluctuating  popula- 
tion. Another  obstacle  presented  itself  in  the  dis- 
orderly conduct  of  the  guard,  of  from  six  to  sixteen 
soldiers,  over  whom,  however,  the  friars  soon  gained 
better  control,  persuading  many  to  conciliate  the  na- 
tives by  intermarriage.  Progress  was  further  checked 
by  the  jealous  restrictions  of  the  government  in  for- 
bidding trade  with  foreigners,  and  by  the  regulations 
enforced  as  to  the  Manila  galleons.  Traffic  must  be 
confined  to  the  government  transports  from  San  Bias, 
under  the  imposition  of  heavy  percentages  to  cover 
expenses. 

The  civil  and  military  authority  was  vested  in 
Lieutenant  Pedro  Fages,  commandant  at  Monterey 
and  subordinate  to  the  governor  of  the  Californias  at 
Loreto.  His  force,  in  1773,  consisted  of  sixty  men, 
twenty -five  of  whom  were  Catalan  volunteers,  of  his 
own  company,  the  rest  regular  soldados  de  cuera,  sup- 
plemented by  a  body  of  Indian  laborers  from  the 
peninsula,  a  few  servants  and  mechanics,  besides  the 
growing  neophyte  population  under  the  friars,  The 


158  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

supervision  naturally  devolving  upon  the  military 
head  in  command  of  the  mission  guard,  and  through 
whom  must  be  obtained  the  government  orders,  was 
galling  to  the  padres,  and  gave  rise  to  frequent  dis- 
putes, which  Fages  embittered  by  a  haughty  and 
capricious  attitude,  and  by  meddling  in  mission  affairs. 
President  Serra  went  in  person  to  Mexico  to  plead 
his  cause,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  for  the  mission- 
aries almost  entire  liberation  from  military  interfer- 
ence, and  the  appointment  in  1773  of  a  new  ruler  in 
the  person  of  Captain  Rivera  y  Moncada,  a  mild,  irres- 
olute, and  incapable  man.  The  force  at  his  command 
was  increased  to  eighty  men,  with  a  pay  list  of 
$39,000.  A  portion  of  this  sum  came  from  the  pious 
fund,  created  by  donation  for  missionary  work  in  the 
Californias,  and  which  yielded  at  this  time  nearly 
$21,000  a  year,  two  thirds  of  it  being  absorbed  by 
stipends. 

Rivera  failed  to  please  his  superiors,  and  after  four 
years  was  transferred  to  the  charge  of  the  peninsula, 
the  governor,  Felipe  de  Neve,  major  of  provincial 
cavalry,  being  sent  to  Monterey,  which  thus  became 
the  seat  of  government  for  both  Californias.  The 
greater  importance  of  the  upper  country  was  further 
recognized  by  measures  for  enlarging  occupation  by 
founding  a  third  presidio,  at  San  Francisco,  with  a 
mission  attached,  and  for  aiding  it  by  reinforcements, 
and  by  colonization.  The  first  foundation  in  1777 
was  the  now  prominent  town  of  San  Jose,  which  set 
a  laudable  example  to  the  mission  farms  by  under- 
taking the  first  irrigation  work  of  any  magnitude- 
Neve  was  a  man  of  marked  ability,  who  only  re- 
quired opportunity  to  demonstrate  it.  He  saw  at  a 
glance  that  the  existing  regulations  were  for  a  country 
so  promising  altogether  defective,  and  he  prepared 
a  plan  more  suitable,  of  broader  possibilities,  which 
was  adopted  with  slight  modifications.  Under  it  was 
included  a  fourth  presidio  at  Santa  Barbara,  a  second 
pueblo  at  Los  Angeles,  an  increase  of  missions  to 


FILIPE  DE  NEVE.  159 

eleven,  and  of  troops  to  two  hundred,  with  four  lieu- 
tenants, most  of  them  to  be  retained  at  the  presidios,  the 
guard  at  the  missions  being  reduced  to  about  six  men. 
The  pay  list  was  limited  to  $53,500,  on  account  of  the 
local  food  contributions  and  the  abolition  of  extra 
rates  for  supplies  from  Mexico.  Pueblo  settlers  were 
to  receive  an  allowance  of  $116.50  for  the  first  two 
years  and  $60  for  the  next  three,  in  goods  at  cost 
prices,  and  also  a  lot  and  field,  together  with  the 
loan  of  live  stock,  seed,  and  implements.  In  return 
they  must  be  prepared  with  horse  and  arms  for 
military  emergencies,  perform  certain  community 
labor,  sell  their  products  exclusively  to  the  presidio, 
and  not  own  more  than  about  fifty  head  of  any  one 
kind  of  stock. 

Notwithstanding  these  favorable  conditions,  com- 
mercial restrictions,  missionary  opposition,  and  innate 
indolence  hampered  progress.  One  cause,  moreover, 
which  inflicted  a  lasting  wound  on  loyalty,  appeared 
in  the  form  of  vagrant  and  convict  settlers,  with 
some  of  whom  Branciforte  was  founded.  The  out- 
cry obliged  the  government  to  change  its  policy  in 
this  respect.  A  worse  influence  was  exercised  by  the 
labor  of  Indians  which,  as  the  Mexicans  claimed, 
made  work  degrading.  To  the  former,  therefore,  was 
left  .all  field  labor  by  the  lazy  and  proud  settlers, 
who  in  return  demoralized  and  oppressed  the  natives, 
resorting  even  to  kidnapping  and  other  outrages. 
Thirty  families  only  were  introduced  for  the  pueblos  ; 
but  their  offspring,  and  the  accession  of  retired  soldiers, 
married  partly  to  Indians,  raised  the  population  of 
the  three  towns  by  1800  to  fully  five  hundred.  At 
first  the  governor  appointed  comisionados  to  supervise 
affairs,  but  within  a  few  years  elections  were  per- 
mitted of  alcaldes  and  regidores  to  join  in  the  ad- 
ministration. 

It  had  been  hoped  that  the  natives  would  develop 
under  the  guidance  of  the  friars  so  as  to  permit  the 


160  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

speedy  transformation  of  the  missions  into  pueblos; 
and  to  this  end  the  authorities  lent  their  aid  by  in- 
troducing artisans  to  teach  them  trades,  and  by  caus- 
ino*  the  early  election  among  the  older  communities 
of  local  officials  for  training  in  self-government.  But 
the  padres  were  naturally  opposed  to  relinquishing 
their  control  of  affairs.  They  availed  themselves, 
therefore,  of  the  natural  indolence  and  stupidity  of 
their  wards  to  keep  in  pupilage  and  serfdom  even 
the  local  officials,  elected,  indeed,  at  their  direction. 
Their  policy  was  to  allow  the  guard  or  presidio  troops 
to  inspire  fear  by  prompt  chastisement  of  offenses,  while 
they  interposed  as  mediators  and  protectors.  This 
policy  of  threatened  vengeance  on  the  one  side,  and 
paternal  love  on  the  other,  sustained  the  ascendency 
of  friar  influence,  and  served  to  restrain  disobedience 
and  outbreaks,  so  that  military  operations  were  rarely 
called  for,  except  against  roaming  marauders. 

Under  the  regulation  of  1781  it  was  proposed  to 
complete  a  line  of  equi-distant  missions  along  the 
coast,  before  planting  a  second  interior  line,  and  to  try 
a  system  of  conversion  among  the  established  villages 
of  the  Santa  Barbara  channel,  without  forming  mis- 
sion communities,  or  giving  temporary  power  to  the 
friars ;  but  to  the  latter  scheme  the  ecclesiastics  pre- 
sented so  obstinate  though  quiet  a  resistance  that  it 
was  finally  abandoned.  Industrial  training  and  con- 
trol of  food  resources  were  essential  to  conversion  and 
reform,  they  argued.  With  armies  of  serfs  to  herd 
cattle,  till  the  soil,  and  build  churches,  the  missions 
prospered,  and  the  bishop,  residing  in  Sonora,  joined 
greedily  with  the  temporal  authorities  in  urging  the 
commencement  of  secularization,  but  ecclesiastical 
diplomacy  prevailed. 

The  able,  patriotic,  and  dignified  Governor  Neve 
was  promoted  to  the  Provincias  Internas  in  1781, 
where  he  succeeded  to  the  chief  command,  a  position 
second  only  to  that  of  the  viceroy.  Through  the 
influence  of  his.  wife's  family,  Colonel  Fages  was  now 


AKRILLAGA  AND  BORICA.  161 

restored  to  California,  with  feelings  toward  the  padres 
softened  by  a  benevolent  piety,  yet  not  altogether 
able  to  avoid  their  displeasure  at  his  honest  devotion 
to  duty.  He  therefore  resigned,  and  was  followed  in 
1791  by  Lieutenant-colonel  J.  A.  Romeu,  who  had 
served  under  him,  and  who  possessed  especial  qualifi- 
cations for  financial  affairs,  so  rare  among  California 
officers.  Unfortunately,  he  fell  ill,  and  died  within  a 
year.  He  was  succeeded,  after  an  interim  adminis- 
tration under  the  complacent  favorite  of  the  friars, 
Captain  Arrillaga,  by  Colonel  D.  de  Borica,  adjutant- 
inspector  of  presidios  in  Chihuahua,  a  kind  and  jovial 
man,  endowed  with  tact  and  practical  good  sense. 
His  absence,  in  1800,  brought  back  Arrillaga  to  the 
helm  during  the  troublous  period  of  the  Mexican  rev- 
olutionary war.  In  1804  the  peninsula  was  released 
from  the  condition  of  an  appendage  to  upper  Califor- 
nia, owing  to  distance  and  the  inconvenience  of  trans- 
mitting reports  by  the  circuitous  route  of  Monterey. 

California  was  not  deemed  important  enough  to  be 
directly  affected  by  the  foreign  or  civil  wars  of  Spain, 
but  indirectly  she  suffered  many  ills.  She  was  com- 
pelled to  submit  to  demands  for  contributions  toward 
the  war  fund,  and  many  a  false  alarm  kept  her  in  sus- 
pense, attended  by  elaborate  defence  measures,  such 
as  strengthening  the  feeble  fortifications,  and  the  or- 
ganization of  a  militia  in  1806.  The  intrusion  of 
English  traders  on  the  northwest  coast  led  to  the 
Nootka  squabble  in  1788-90,  which  opened  the  door 
to  the  United  States,  and  brought  forward  the  grad- 
ual limitation  of  Spanish  sway  to  the  south  of  lati- 
tude 42°. 

The  Russians  were  similarly  restricted  to  the  north 
of  54°  40',  yet  with  an  appreciation  of  the  fur  re- 
sources southward,  which  to  them  were  the  all- 
important  inducement,  they  visited  California  in  their 
search  for  other  hunting  grounds,  and  thus  becoming 
acquainted  with  her  agricultural  wealth,  perceived 
the  advantage  of  procuring  their  staple  provisions  at 

C.  B.— II.    11 


162  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

a  market  so  much  nearer  and  cheaper  than  those 
hitherto  patronized.  The  preoccupation  of  Spain  in 
European  wars  had  led  to  a  neglect  of  California's 
interests,  and  to  a  reduction  of  her  garrisons,  so  that 
it  was  not  difficult  to  persuade  the  governor  to  permit 
an  infringement  of  the  stringent  laws  against  for- 
eign trade.  This  arranged,  it  became  convenient  for 

O  O  * 

the  Russian- American  company  to  establish  a  station 
in  proximity  to  the  bay,  Bodega  being  selected  as  the 
site  in  1809;  and  here  they  sustained  themselves  in 
face  of  all  protests,  relying  on  Spanish  weakness,  and 
subsequently  on  Mexican  preoccupation  in  civil  wars. 
Some,  indeed,  attempted  to  lay  claim  to  territorial 
ownership  by  virtue  of  this  long  occupation,  but  the 
tzar  felt  no  inclination  to  burden  himself  with  so  re- 
mote and  isolated  a  region,  and  thus  in  1841  the 
Russians  abandoned  a  post  which  had  become  unprof- 
itable. Their  suspected  design  had  meanwhile  led  to 
the  foundation  on  the  north  side  of  the  bay  of  two 
missions  and  a  fort,  to  uphold  the  Spanish  title,  and 
expeditions  had  been  sent  to  explore  the  interior  val- 
leys, up  the  Sacramento  and  to  Trinity  river. 

The  effect  of  the  Mexican  revolution  against  Spain 
was  first  observed  in  preliminary  political  concessions 
by  the  mother  country,  such  as  representation  in  the 
c6rtes,  of  which  no  use  was  made  by  California. 
Then  came  the  stoppage  of  money  and  supplies  for 
the  garrisons,  a  hardship  affecting  all  classes.  The 
settlers,  and  especially  the  missions,  were  called  upon 
to  furnish  provisions  against  treasury  orders  which 
were  never  paid,  and  forbidden  to  accept  the  tempt- 
ing offers  of  traders  hovering  about  the  coast.  The 
padres  lost  their  stipends,  but  none  suffered  as  did 
the  soldiers,  who  were  confined  to  garrison  duty  upon 
scanty  rations  and  in  tattered  uniform,  forbidden  to 
complain  or  to  retire  to  country  life.  Under  such 
privations  the  restrictions  against  foreign  intercourse 
could  not  be  maintained.  Friars  and  colonists  has- 
tened to  exchange  their  surplus  grain,  and  particularly 


GOVERNOR  SOLA.  163 

hides  and  tallow,  for  the  hardware,  dry  goods,  and 
fancy  articles  of  the  trading  vessels,  now  increasing  in 
numbers.  Even  officials  openly  engaged  in  the  traffic 
with  their  own  or  the  presidial  property,  or  such 
as  could  be  obtained  by  forced  levies  upon  the 
missions. 

These  irregularities,  together  with  the  Russian  en- 
croachment, induced  the  viceregal  government,  during 
an  interval  of  success  against  the  insurgents,  to  furnish 
a  few  supplies,  and  to  install,  in  1815,  a  more  capable 
governor  at  Monterey  in  the  person  of  Lieutenant- 
colonel  P.  V.  de  Sola,  lately  habilitado-general  for 
the  province.  The  rule  of  the  devout  and  popular 
Arrillaga,  who  died  in  1814,  had  been  somewhat  too 
apathetic  to  please  his  superiors,  and  his  lieutenant, 
J.  Argtiello,  who  succeeded  him,  was  transferred  to  the 
peninsula,  partly  on  account  of  his  wrongly  suspected 
disloyalty. 

Sola  took  prompt  measures  to  carry  out  his  orders 
for  restricting  traffic,  but  the  pressing  wants  of  the 
troops,  and  the  resolute  though  passive  resistance  of 
the  inhabitants  compelled  him  to  yield.  Rather  than 
countenance  the  loss  of  revenue  by  smuggling  he  per- 
mitted trade,  subject  to  an  import  and  export  duty, 
which  did  much  toward  covering  military  expenses. 
An  additional  sum  was  obtained  by  forced  requisi- 
tions upon  the  missions  and  settlements.  The  re- 
moval of  commercial  restrictions  gave  an  impulse  to 
stock-raising  and  farming,  and  opened  an  era  of  pros- 
perity, despite  the  pressure  of  a  heavy  presidio  estab- 
lishment, wherein  was  vested  all  authority,  even  over 
local  communities ;  for  the  friars,  as  well  as  the  hon- 
orary village  officials,  could  do  little  or  nothing  with- 
out gubernatorial  sanction.  On  the  other  hand,  this 
intercourse,  with  its  free  interchange  of  commodities, 
served  to  blight  the  industrial  revival  inaugurated  by 
Borica.  Immigration  from  Mexico  ceased,  and  with 
it  the  influx  of  desirable  artisans.  The  incipient  en- 
terprise among  the  mission  Indians  also  disappeared, 


164  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

or  was  diverted  into  channels  promising  more  imme- 
diate and  tangible  results. 

The  revolutionary  period,  however,  did  not  pass 
without  disturbing  for  a  time  California's  tranquility. 
Privateers  were  creeping  along  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can coasts,  and  their  presence,  indeed,  had  much  to  do 
with  the  absence  of  supply  vessels.  The  rumors  of 
wealth  circulated  by  trafficking  missionaries  failed 
not  to  reach  the  ears  of  this  fraternity,  and  in  No- 
vember 1818  two  vessels  under  H.  Bouchard  came  to 
gather  spoils.  Warned  by  reports  from  the  Hawaiian 
islands,  steps  had  been  taken  for  defence,  and  for 
hiding  or  carrying  into  the  interior  all  portable  goods, 
so  that  the  marauders  were  not  only  disappointed  in 
their  expectation  of  booty,  but  on  entering  Monterey 
for  supplies  were  severely  handled  by  the  batteries. 
The  enraged  Bouchard  thereupon  revenged  himself 
by  capturing  the  town  and  giving  it  up  to  pillage,  to- 
gether with  some  other  points  to  the  southward. 

The  worst  effects  of  this  raid  came  in  the  form  of 
reinforcements  from  Mexico,  consisting  of  disorderly 
troops,  which  swelled  the  garrisons  from  about  four 
hundred  to  seven  hundred  men,  and  imposed  an  addi- 
tional burden  upon  the  people ;  for  no  supplies  accom- 
panied the  influx,  and  only  a  trifling  instalment  upon 
the  heavy  debt  now  due  from  the  royal  treasury  could 
be  obtained.  Meanwhile  continued  alarms  kept  the 
militia  and  Indian  contingents  constantly  under  arms. 

To  the  missions  was  due  for  provisions  nearly  half 
a  million  of  dollars,  not  counting  the  long  arrears  of 
stipends  and  goods.  The  consequent  discontent  of 
the  friars,  notwithstanding  their  prosperity,  was  in- 
creased by  a  change  in  the  management,  which 
brought  them  more  directly  under  control  of  the  or- 
der in  Spain,  and  demanded  a  closer  observance  of 
the  rules  for  humility  and  poverty,  to  the  discarding 
of  carriages,  watches,  and  other  luxuries,  corrupting 
alike  to  themselves  and  to  their  flock.  The  reform 
seemed  the  more  severe  after  a  long  period  of  indul- 


CANON  FERNANDEZ.  165 

tence,  and  in  addition  came  a  secularization  decree 
-om  the  cortes.     The  padres   professed  themselves 
ready  to  obey,  but  were  fully  aware  that  the   bishop 
had  no  priests  to  take  their  place. 

The  proposed  innovations  under  the  new  liberal 
constitution  forced  from  Spain  were  supplanted  by 
decisive  measures  from  Mexico.  Iturbide,  the  lead- 
ing royalist  general,  had  in  1821  passed  over  to  the 
insurgents,  and  declared  for  a  revival  of  the  ancient 
Mexican  empire  under  a  Spanish  prince.  The  hesita- 
tion of  the  king  to  concede  autonomy  for  its  principal 
American  colony  opened  the  way  for  the  general's 
ambition;  and  sustained  by  his  devoted  troops,  he 
proclaimed  himself  emperor,  under  the  title  of  Agus- 
tin  I. 

Tired  of  Spain's  continued  neglect,  the  Californians 
had  promptly  recognized  the  change,  and  affirmed  it 
by  selecting  Governor  Sola  as  deputy  to  the  imperial 
parliament.  Mexico  had  not  expected  such  readiness  in 
a  province  regarded  as  a  mission  field,  and  conse- 
quently under  the  control  of  loyal  Spanish  friars. 
Canon  Fernandez,  a  jovial  demagogue,  was  therefore 
dispatched  to  win  over  the  people,  and  report  upon 
their  attitude  and  resources.  He  permitted  the  re- 
cent electoral  body  to  constitute  itself  an  assembly, 
and  the  leading  towns  to  choose  a  more  formal  and 
complete  local  government  than  had  before  existed. 
In  addition  to  this  flattering  concession  he  granted 
the  assembly  the  privilege  of  appointing  Captain  L. 
Argtiello,  a  Californian,  to  succeed  the  departing  dep- 
uty Sola  as  governor.  The  selection  was  naturally 
distasteful  to  the  influential  Spanish  minority,  which 
thus  far  had  controlled  affairs,  but  nevertheless  it  was 
deemed  politic. 

The  revulsion  among  both  classes  favored  the  inau- 
guration of  republican  rule  in  1823.  In  Mexico  the 
long  revolutionary  war  had  fostered  the  democratic 
ideas  implanted  by  the  example  of  the  United  States 
and  of  France,  and  given  birth  to  a  numerous  brood 


166  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

of  aspirants  for  spoils  and  power.  The  arbitrary  mis- 
management of  Iturbide  gained  for  them  the  needful 
sympathy  with  the  masses ;  and  so  was  overthrown 
the  empire,  and  the  republic  proclaimed,  which  during 
the  next  half  century  was  to  become  the  theatre  of 
civil  strife. 

California  was  made  a  territory  under  a  jefe-polf- 
tico,  whose  authority  was  curtailed  only  in  military 
matters,  now  chiefly  delegated  to  a  special  coman- 
dante,  with  forces  reduced  to  less  than  four  hundred 
men.  The  assembly  continued  to  figure  as  a  deputa- 
cion  with  seven  members,  half  of  them  elected  annu- 
ally ;  yet  it  acted  merely  at  irregular  intervals  and  as 
a  gubernatorial  council,  in  minor  economic  matters, 
rather  than  as  a  law-making  body.  The  representa- 
tive to  congress  had  no  vote,  and  for  several  years 
not  even  a  seat  or  voice.  The  comisionados  at  the 
pueblos  lost  their  authority,  and  the  election  of 
alcaldes,  regidores,  and  attached  officials,  although 
controlled  by  a  few  leading  men,  excited  much  in- 
terest. With  these  rested  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, for  no  competent  judges  were  appointed  during 
the  first  decade.  A  legal  adviser  was  in  due  time 
provided  for  the  governor,  and  the  federal  authorities 
took  care  to  appoint  the  necessary  treasury  and  cus- 
tom-house officials. 

The  wise  and  liberal  rule  of  Arguello  was  in  1825 
replaced  by  that  of  a  Mexican  governor,  Lieutenant- 
colonel  J.  M.  Echeandia,  who  assumed  the  military 
command,  and  for  his  health's  sake  selected  San 
Diego  as  his  residence.  He  lacked  energy  and  reso- 
lution, and  displayed  an  inefficiency  in  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  and  the  enforcement  of  discipline  which 
provoked  much  hostility.  As  a  republican  he  fa- 
vored secularization,  and  came  quickly  in  antagonism 
with  the  friars,  who  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
federal  constitution.  The  diputacion  would  gladly 
have  joined  in  despoiling  them,  but  the  governor  ab- 


ECHEANDIA.  167 

stained  from  so  radical  a  measure,  partly  through 
fear  lest  the  missionaries  should  retire,  and  by  with- 
drawing their  control  over  the  Indians  prompt  the 
latter  to  renew  the  outbreaks  of  the  preceding  year, 
when  three  missions  rose  against  the  troops,  and 
but  for  the  interference  of  the  friars  others  would 
probably  have  joined,  and  rendered  the  incident  more 
serious. 

The  general  feeling  was  further  excited  by  the  re- 
vival of  convict  immigration ;  by  the  decree  of  expul- 
sion against  the  Spaniards,  although  not  enforced  in 
California ;  by  the  subordinate  position  assigned  by 
the  governor  to  the  assembly ;  by  the  contemptuous 
treatment  of  the  congressional  deputy,  and  by  the 
indifference  of  the  federal  authorities  toward  the 
province,  which  was  left  to  its  own  resources  in  meet- 
ing the  annual  expenditure  estimated  at  about  $130,- 
000.  The  actual  revenue  reached  only  half  that 
amount,  even  under  favorable  circumstances. 

The  deficiencies  in  the  revenue  led  alse  to  defection 
among  the  troops,  who,  in  1827  broke  out  in  mutiny. 
In  the  following  year  the  contador  instigated  a  revolt 
in  favor  of  Californian  officials,  under  the  leadership 
of  a  convict  named  Solis,  whose  incapacity  proved  the 
main  cause  of  failure.  With  such  intriguing  among 
the  federal  representatives,  the  interests  of  the  gov- 
ernment were  further  slighted  through  disregard  of 
its  laws  and  instructions;  and  not  only  was  the 
revenue  subjected  to  much  dishonest  manipulation, 
but  smuggling  met  with  official  connivance,  being 
encouraged  also  by  the  capricious  opening  and  closing 
of  ports,  and  by  the  arrangement  under  which  foreign 
vessels  could,  after  a  first  call  at  Monterey,  peddle 
their  cargoes  from  point  to  point  with  little  or  no 
supervision. 

The  missions  remained  as  before  a  prey  to  office- 
holders, subject  to  all  manner  of  arbitrary  levies,  ex- 
actions, and  loans,  without  pretence  of  repayment. 
Secularization  was  partially  introduced  as  a  means  to 


168  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

this  end,  finding  many  advocates  even  among  the 
neophytes,  whom  the  friars  had  purposely  left  in  utter 
ignorance.  In  1830  the  supreme  authorities  were  be- 
guiled by  politicians  into  passing  a  secularization  de- 
cree for  the  province,  to  be  carried  out  by  J.  M. 
Padres.  Eager  for  his  share  in  the  prospective 
spoils,  the  governor  hastened  to  anticipate  the  meas- 
ure by  a  similar  plan  of  his  own. 

Alarmed,  meanwhile,  by  the  discontent  and  irregu- 
larities in  California,  the  federal  government  appointed 
a  new  governor  in  the  person  of  Lieutenant-colonel 
M.  Victoria,  a  brave  and  honest  man,  and  long  com- 
mandant in  the  peninsula,  but  somewhat  of  a  marti- 
net. He  arrived  in  1831,  and  promptly  put  a  stop  to 
the  projected  raid  upon  the  mission  property,  refusing 
to  convene  the  assembly  which  had  declared  in  favor 
of  it.  A  strict  disciplinarian,  he  prepared  to  suppress 
the  lawlessness  which  had  now  become  rampant,  and 
did  not  hesitate  to  arraign  even  alcaldes  before  courts- 
martial.  Foiled  in  their  aspirations  for  plunder,  the 
Californians  chose  to  regard  his  salutary  measures  as 
an  outrage,  doubly  oppressive  as  emanating  from  the 
unwelcome  agent  of  a  remote,  indifferent,  and  even 
tyrannical  authority.  Some  of  the  officials  whom  he 
had  exiled  availed  themselves  of  the  ill-feeling  to  re- 
turn and  kindle  a  revolt,  which  was  aided  by  the  late 
governor,  Echeandia.  The  disaffected  troops  of  course 
participated,  and  Victoria  was  easily  defeated  and 
driven  from  the  country. 

The  assembly  now  sought  to  assert  itself  by  choos- 
ing a  ruler,  but  Echeandia  objected.  The  result  was 
that  the  northern  districts  seceded  from  the  compact 
made  with  him,  and  appealed  to  Mexico.  The  ad- 
ministration then  in  power  happened  to  have  at  its 
disposal  a  man  of  tact  and  ability,  the  brigadier  Jose 
Figueroa,  one  too  prominent,  indeed,  for  so  remote  a 
post,  but  whom  it  was  desired  to  remove.  Arriving 
in  California  with  discretionary  power  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  country,  in  secularization,  trade,  and 


FIGUEROA.  169 

general  development,  he  applied  himself  so  earnestly 
to  the  task  as  to  harmonize  all  the  opposing  elements 
and  produce  an  era  of  hitherto  unparalleled  prosperity, 
outside  of  the  missions.  He  organized  local  councils 
at  several  of  the  settlements,  pushed  forward  occupa- 
tion to  the  north  side  of  the  bay,  freely  distributed 
grants  for  the  extension  of  agriculture,  released  the 
people  from  the  payment  of  tithes,  and  against  his 
own  interest,  advocated  the  separation  of  the  military 
and  civil  commands. 

In  connection  with  the  Mexican  decree  of  secu- 
larization a  plan  was  framed  for  establishing  colo- 
nies, for  which  purpose  the  property  of  the  missions 
was  to  be  used  in  providing  seed,  implements,  live- 
stock, and  provisions  sufficient  for  the  first  year. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  persons  were  induced  by  this 
opportunity,  combined  with  the  offer  of  land-grants, 
to  remove  to  the  territory  in  1834,  under  care  of 
Padres  and  Hijar,  who  had  been  appointed  military 
and  civil  successors  toFigueroa.  Their  appointments 
being  countermanded,  however,  the  governor  con- 
sidered that  he  hacj  the  power  to  interpose  and  save 
the  missions  and  neophytes  from  the  depredations  of 
the  incoming  strangers,  greatly  to  the  delight  of  the 
Californians,  who  regarded  the  prey  as  purely  their 
own.  Sufficient  aid  was  granted  to  keep  the  immi- 
grants from  starvation  until  they  could  settle  or  find 
occupation,  though  a  few,  who  appeared  to  be  con- 
spiring, were  sent  out  of  the  country  in  company  with 
their  two  leaders. 

Shortly  afterward  Figueroa  died,  his  name  being 
remembered  as  that  of  one  of  the  benefactors  of 
California,  and  as  the  best  governor  who  had  ever 
directed  the  affairs  of  the  province.  He  had  begun 
secularization,  not  on  a  general  and  ruinous  plan,  but 
by  gradual  emancipation  at  the  most  advanced  mis- 
sions. The  friars  responded  by  showing  a  total  dis- 
regard for  the  estates  intrusted  to  them  and  for  their 
neophytes,  hastening  to  secure  a  portion  of  the  spoils 


]  70  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

by  slaughtering  cattle  and  selling  the  hides.  The 
Californians  joined  in  the  scramble,  and  became  so 
impressed  with  the  benefits  of  self  rule  that  the 
new  governor,  Colonel  M.  Chico,  encountered  from 
the  first  a  current  of  unpopularity  which  he  wanted 
the  tact  or  ability  to  overcome ;  even  the  troops  and 
friars  took  part  against  him,  and  within  a  few  months 
he  was  forced  to  retire. 

The  people  were  unanimously  in  favor  of  state  gov- 
ernment under  their  own  officials,  since  the  supreme 
authorities  persisted  in  not  only  neglecting  them,  but 
imposing  obnoxious  burdens  in  the  shape  of  haughty 
representatives  and  disorderly  troops  to  eat  up  their 
substance.  This  feeling  had  been  greatly  stimulated 
by  foreigners,  who  had  of  late  begun  to  arrive  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  encouraged  by  offers  of  land  and 
the  prospect  of  intermarriage  with  the  best  families. 

The  leading  spirit  in  the  movement  was  J.  B. 
Alvarado,  president  of  the  assembly,  an  ardent  young 
Californian,  popular  with  all  classes,  of  much  practi- 
cal ability  and  shrewdness,  and  a  man  of  progressive 
ideas.  Flattered  by  their  successes  against  Victoria 
and  Chico,  his  supporters  resolved  to  be  rid  also  of 
N.  Gutierrez,  who,  after  the  governor's  departure, 
had  assumed  charge  for  the  new  central  ad- 
ministration of  Mexico.  Centralism  implied  a 
still  greater  degree  of  hateful  subordination,  and 
they  determined  to  resist  it.  Aided  by  foreigners 
they  soon  compelled  him,  together  with  several 
score  of  Mexicans,  to  follow  his  predecessor,  and 
leave  the  command  to  Jose  Castro,  then  president  of 
the  assembly.  The  foreign  element  advocated  inde- 
pendence, in  imitation  of  Texas ;  but  the  fear  of  its 
ascendency  restrained  the  more  conservative  of  the 
community;  nevertheless  California  was  proclaimed  a 
state,  and  the  assembly  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a 
congress.  Alvarado  was  named  governor,  and  for 
commandant  at  Sonoma,  M.  G.  Vallejo,  the  richest 
and  most  influential  man  in  the  north,  who,  while  not 


JUAN  B.  ALYARADO.  171 

participating  very  actively  in  the  revolution,  neverthe- 
less held  the  balance  of  power  in  the  state.  The  mili- 
tia was  reorganized,  and  several  reforms  instituted, 
particularly  in  the  finance  department. 

Juan  Bautista  Alvarado  was  born  at  Monterey 
February  14,  1809,  the  son  of  a  sergeant  who  died 
during  the  same  year.  Observant  and  quick  to  learn, 
he  made  the  most  of  the  few  books  and  the  rudimentary 
education  to  be  obtained  in  an  isolated  frontier  prov- 
ince. Association  with  foreigners  assisted  to  enlarge 
his  information,  sharpen  his  wits,  and  instil  a  prac- 
tical energy  which  was  rare  among  his  countrymen. 
An  early  training  in  the  office  of  Governor  Sola, 
and  as  clerk  to  traders,  enabled  him  to  enter  upon 
his  public  career  in  the  eighteenth  year  as  secretary 
to  the  provincial  assembly.  In  1834  he  exchanged 
this  position  for  an  inspectorship  in  the  custom- 
house. At  the  same  time  he  availed  himself  of  the 
popularity  acquired  in  his  official  capacity,  and  as  a 
genial,  affable  man  of  recognized  talent  and  good 
character,  to  gain  a  seat  in  the  diputacion.  The  ab- 
sence of  the  eldest  vocal  placed  him  second  on  the  list 
to  the  president,  and  gave  weight  to  his  plans  against 
Gutierrez,  and  his  position  as  leader  among  the  younger 
Californians  and  also  of  the  revolution  procured  for  him 
the  governorship,  the  highest  possible  honor  within 
the  province.  After  a  rule  of  six  years  he  retired, 
with  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  Mexican  army.  As  a 
reward  for  joining  two  years  later  in  the  revolution 
which  ousted  his  Mexican  successor,  he  was  intrusted 
by  the  new  provincial  governor,  Pico,  with  the  man- 
agement of  the  Monterey  custom-house.  Although 
elected  representative  to  the  congress  at  Mexico,  he 
did  not  attend  its  sessions,  nor  did  he  pay  much  at- 
tention to  his  appointment  from  that  quarter  as  adju- 
tant inspector  of  the  California  presidio  companies. 
During  the  American  invasion  he  remained,  indeed, 
almost  inactive,  under  parole,  and  subsequently  lived 


172  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

in  retirement,  chiefly  on  the  estate  of  San  Pablo,  in- 
herited by  his  wife,  Martina  Castro,  by  whom  he  had 
several  children.  Although  forced  by  circumstances 
to  have  recourse  to  intrigue,  to  waste  his  efforts  and  the 
public  property  in  political  struggles  and  campaigns, 
and  to  countenance  many  impositions  among  subordi- 
nates, he  was  personally  animated  by  patriotic  and 
honest  motives,  which  lifted  him  above  sordid  consid- 
erations, and  were  strongly  reflected  in  his  career. 

Mariano  Guadalupe  Vallejo  was  the  son  of  a  ser- 
geant in  the  California  presidio  service,  who  by  virtue 
of  his  pure  Spanish  blood  and  family  name  enjoyed 
the  title  of  don  and  distinguido.  This  position  pro- 
cured for  the  son  admission  into  the  Monterey  com- 
pany as  cadet  in  1823,  in  his  fifteenth  year.  The 
aspirations  imbibed  from  a  proud  though  less  cultured 
father  had  endeared  to  him  the  military  profession, 
and  prompted  him  to  prepare  for  the  position 
by  supplementing  the  scanty  education  obtainable  in 
his  native  town  of  Monterey  with  the  study  of  all  the 
books  within  his  reach.  After  four  years  of  training 
he  was  promoted  to  alferez  of  the  San  Francisco  com- 
pany, yet  acted  as  habilitado  and  comandante  of  both 
companies,  sharing  in  their  campaigns  against  Indians. 
Elected  a  member  of  the  diputacion  in  1830,  he  took 
an  active  part  in  opposition  to  Victoria,  and  was  in 
1834  rewarded  with  the  election  of  diputado  suplente 
to  the  congress  at  Mexico,  although  not  called  upon 
to  sit. 

A  favorite  of  Governor  Figueroa,  he  received  from 
him  a  large  grant  north  of  the  bay  of  San  Francisco, 
the  commission  to  secularize  the  mission  of  Solano, 
and  to  found  the  military  post  of  Sonoma,  and  there  to 
act  as  director  of  colonization,  and  as  comandante  of 
the  northern  frontier,  with  the  military  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant. Bound  to  this  new  field  by  public  and  private 
interests,  he  strove  energetically  to  promote  its  settle- 
ment and  unfolding,  and  so  successfully  that  by  1836 
he  had  become  in  many  respects  the  most  powerful 


MARIANO  G.  VALLEJO.  173 

man  in  the  province,  and  certainly  the  most  inde- 
pendent. 

The  mere  weight  of  his  name  was  sufficient  to  make 
him  courted  by  and  indispensable  to  the  new  Califor- 
nia party,  and  the  position  of  comandante-general  was 
conceded  to  his  passive  influence  rather  than  to  his 
services  or  popularity.  He  prudently  abstained  from 
injuring  his  prestige  by  too  familiar  intercourse  or  by 
meddling  in  southern  affairs,  and  his  reserved  and 
somewhat  haughty  demeanor,  inspired  by  family 
name  and  wealth  no  less  than  by  military  training 
and  official  rank,  tended  to  make  him  more  respected 
than  liked.  As  a  mere  lieutenancy  did  not  well  ac- 
cord with  his  new  position  of  general,  he  was  created 
a  colonel  of  cavalry  by  the  California  authorities,  and 
Mexico  responded  in  a  measure  by  advancing  him,  in 
1838,  to  the  rank  of  captain  of  the  company  and 
colonel  of  defensores,  while  recognizing  his  position  as 
comandante  militar.  This  latter  jurisdiction  was  con- 
firmed under  the  succeeding  Mexican  governor,  to- 
gether with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  and  an 
additional  land  grant. 

In  return  for  his  favorable  attitude  toward  the 
United  States  and  their  immigrants,  he  was  allowed 
a  proportion  of  his  claims  for  losses  during  the  inva- 
sion, and  given  a  commission  as  colonel,  with  the  ap- 
pointments of  Indian  agent  and  legislative  councillor, 
besides  being  elected  to  the  constitutional  convention 
arid  first  state  senate.  His  grants  of  land  were  only 
partially  confirmed,  but  nevertheless  they  formed  a 
magnificent  domain,  the  value  of  which  he  sought  to 
increase  by  promoting  the  foundation  of  Benicia  and 
Vallejo,  the  former  being  named  in  honor  of  his  wife. 
The  effort  to  make  the  latter  the  permanent  capital  of 
the  state  proved  a  disastrous  failure ;  yet  the  selection 
of  the  site  for  a  commercial  centre  was  j  udicious,  and 
its  growth  has  endorsed  the  judgment  of  its  founder. 

The  general  henceforth  lived  in  modest  retirement 
at  Sonoma,  where  he  directed  the  education  of  the 


174  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

thirteen  children  born  to  him  by  Francisca  Benicia, 
daughter  of  Joaquin  Carrillo,  whom  he  married  in 
1832.  He  still  appeared  occasionally  in  public  life, 
as  the  foremost  representative  of  Spanish-Califor- 
nians.  Intercourse  with  strangers,  and  diminished 
wealth  and  power,  had  tended  to  soften  the  former 
pride  and  exclusiveness,  and  though  still  retaining  a 
marked  formality  of  manner  and  speech,  he  ranked  as 
the  chosen  favorite  among  his  countrymen,  and  was 
generally  esteemed  also  by  Americans  for  his  high 
sense  of  honor,  his  generosity  and  refinement,  and  his 
unsullied  public  record. 

The  revolution  had  transferred  nearly  all  political 
advantage  to  the  northern  districts.  At  this  the 
long-favored  south  took  umbrage ;  and  finding  no  dis- 
position to  make  Los  Angeles  the  seat  of  government, 
proclaimed  there  the  local  council  as  the  supreme 
authority,  reporting  in  the  meantime  to  Mexico  that 
the  north  was  yielding  to  foreign  designs.  Both  sides 
took  to  arms.  In  the  midst  of  the  conflict  an  emis- 
sary arrived  from  Mexico,  and  appealed  to  Alvarado, 
as  the  most  powerful  leader,  persuading  him  to  accept 
centralism  as  the  price  of  confirmation  for  himself  and 
Vallejo.  Before  the  agent  returned  to  Mexico  the  gov- 
ernment had  been  prevailed  upon  by  the  California 
deputy  to  appoint  as  govern  or  C.  Carrillo,  a  southerner, 
who  was  promptly  installed  by  his  district.  Still 
hoping  for  his  own  confirmation,  Alvarado  held  his 
ground,  confident  that  the  party  in  power  would  be 
recognized  by  the  distracted  administration  in  Mexico. 
The  south  fully  understood  the  danger  of  delay,  and 
once  more  took  the  field.  Alvarado  gained  suffi- 

o 

cient  advantage  at  first  to  cajole  the  vacillating  Car- 
rillo into  inaction,  and  as  he  had  anticipated,  was 
confirmed  in  office,  the  latter  being  appeased  with  a 
large  land  grant,  and  the  emissary  rewarded  with 
a  seat  in  congress. 


MICHELTORENA.  175 

The  civil  war  gave  the  finishing  blow  to  the  mis- 
sions. It  favored  the  absorption  of  their  property 
under  the  additional  guise  of  labor  loans.  The  ad- 
ministration of  this  property  was  mainly  in  the  hands 
of  partisans,  without  due  supervision,  who  took  their 
share  from  the  forced  contributions,  and  loaned  or 
transferred  live-stock  and  implements,  and  even  the 
Indians,  to  friendly  rancheros,  leaving  the  friars  and 
neophytes  to  shift  as  best  they  could.  The  govern- 
ment at  Mexico  dissipated  in  like  manner  the  pious 
fund,  which  had  so  largely  served  to  sustain  the  mis- 
sions in  colonial  days;  so  that,  when  in  1839  a  bishop 
was  appointed  for  California,  with  the  power  to  ad- 
minister the  fund,  it  had  virtually  disappeared.  Nor 
could  the  prelate  obtain  his  salary ;  and  as  tithes  were 
abolished,  he  had  to  subsist  on  scanty  contributions. 
In  1843  many  of  the  missions  were  restored  to  the 
friars,  but  by  this  time  they  were  so  impoverished, 
and  the  neophytes  so  dispersed,  that  only  a  few  of 
them  presented  even  a  feeble  prospect  for  their  re- 
vival. 

In  Alvarado's  disposition  was  the  making  of  an 
excellent  governor;  but  party  strife  caused  him  grad- 
ually to  abandon  the  management  of  affairs  to  others, 
who  absorbed  most  of  the  funds  for  the  civil  depart- 
ments. At  this  Vallejo  was  annoyed ;  and  alarmed, 
moreover,  at  the  growing  machinations  of  foreigners, 
he  urged  the  government  to  appoint  a  new  ruler,  sus- 
tained by  sufficient  troops  to  defend  the  department. 

The  administration  recognized  the  danger,  and  was 
only  too  glad  to  have  the  country  in  charge  of  its  own 
agents.  Being  more  free  at  the  time  in  its  operations, 
it  was  able  to  spare  over  three  hundred  men,  who 
were  placed  under  the  command  of  General  Michel- 
torena,  as  governor  and  comandante-general,  with  ex- 
traordinary power  to  appoint  officials,  reorganize  the 
presidio  garrisons,  and  take  other  necessary  steps  for 
the  defence  and  welfare  of  the  country.  One  of  his 
first  measures  was  auspicious,  reducing  civil  expenses 


176  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

by  nearly  $40,000;  and  he  arrived  in  1842,  just  in 
time  to  save  the  department,  as  he  claimed,  from  for- 
eign hands. 

In  1840  suspicions  against  foreigners  had  risen  to 
such  a  pitch  that  over  a  hundred  were  arrested,  and 
some  of  them  sent  to  Mexico  for  trial.  No  guilt  was 
proven,  and  several  returned  to  exact  compensation. 
New  arrivals  of  different  nationalities  continued  nev- 
ertheless to  be  welcomed,  and  to  receive  grants,  a 
large  number  collecting  on  the  river  Sacramento, 
round  the  fort  founded  in  1839  by  Sutter.  The  ma- 
jority were  immigrants  from  the  United  States,  who 
freely  expressed  the  conviction  that  the  province 
must  ere  long  be  annexed  by  their  people.  The  cab- 
inet at  Washington  had  in  fact  made  an  offer  for  it  in 
the  early  thirties,  and  after  the  Texan  question  em- 
broiled the  two  republics,  the  southern  slave-holding 
states  resolved  to  strengthen  their  position  in  the 
union  by  means  of  territorial  extension.  The  squadron 
in  the  Pacific  had  orders  to  keep  watch  over  the  coast, 
and  in  case  of  war,  or  of  English  attempts  to  gain  a 
foothold,  as  suspected,  possession  for  the  United 
States  should  be  taken.  Thus  it  happened  that  in 
1842  Commodore  Jones  hastened  to  occupy  Monterey 
in  the  belief  that  war  had  been  declared.  Finding 
from  a  newspaper,  which  was  shown  to  him  there, 
that  he  had  been  mistaken,  the  fort  was  promptly  re- 
stored, with  an  apology,  Micheltorena  assuming  for 
his  own  glory  that  the  enemy  had  been  frightened 
away  by  his  approach.  The  supreme  government 
now  forbade  the  entry  of  Americans ;  but  the  local 
authorities  considered  the  interdiction  hopeless,  and 
disregarded  it,  the  governor  himself  freely  selling  and 
granting  lands  to  them. 

Micheltorena  did  not  justify  the  expectation  formed 
in  regard  to  him.  He  soon  lapsed  into  careless  indo- 
lence, which  won  a  certain  popularity,  although  not 
enough  to  overcome  the  ridicule  provoked  by  his 
bluster  in  the  Jones  affair,  nor  to  condone  for  the 


PIO  PICO.  177 

lawless  acts  of  his  soldiers,  composed  mostly  of  va- 
grants and  convicts,  and  driven  by  want  to  plunder  the 
settlers.  Less  than  two  years  of  this  imposition  suf- 
ficed to  revive  the  dislike  for  Mexican  officials,  and  the 
love  for  self-rule,  together  with  the  handling  of  revenue. 
The  first  revolt  was  allayed  with  the  promise  that 
the  obnoxious  troops  should  be  sent  away.  This  was 
but  a  subterfuge  to  gain  time  for  seeking  reenforce- 
ments  in  Mexico,  and  among  the  foreigners  so  widely 
favored  by  Micheltorena.  The  Californians  rallied 
once  more,  at  the  call  of  the  assembly,  which  im- 
peached the  general,  and  proclaimed  governor  their 
senior  member,  Pio  Pico.  The  foreigners  were  per- 
suaded to  withdraw,  and  thus  bereft  of  his  main  prop, 
Micheltorena  yielded,  and  departed  with  most  of  his 
men,  a  rather  sorry  figure. 

The  Texan  imbroglio  left  the  Mexican  government 

O  O 

no  alternative  save  to  approve,  and  as  success  had 
been  achieved  this  time  by  the  south,  Los  Angeles 
rose  again  as  the  capital ;  but  Monterey  remained 
the  military  and  financial  centre,  and  Jose  Castro,  the 
comandante-general,  conspired  with  Alvarado  and 
others  to  secure  for  his  department  the  greater  share 
of  the  revenue,  which  for  1845  reached  the  sum  of 
$140,000  from  the  custom-house  alone.  Thuswrangling 
was  renewed  between  the  two  sections,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  many  projected  reforms,  and  with  the  pros- 
pect of  another  civil  war. 

The  difference  arising  between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico  on  account  of  the  attitude  of  the  former 
toward  Texas  manifested  itself  in  California,  as  a 
border  province,  by  precautionary  measures  against 
foreigners  in  general,  and  by  orders  from  the  home 
authorities  for  the  exclusion  of  further  immigrants 
from  the  United  States  in  particular.  This  was  not 
easy  to  accomplish,  however,  and,  indeed,  was  not 
attempted,  favored  as  these  intruders  were  by  a  vast 
unprotected  frontier,  and  by  a  large  number  of  coun- 

C.  B.— II.     12 


ITS  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

trymen  domiciled  here  and  connected  by  marriage 
and  pecuniary  interests  with  native  Americans. 
Internal  dissensions  and  a  provincial  party-spirit, 
sustained  by  so  many  grievances  against  Mexico, 
likewise  exercised  an  influence  in  checking  a  too 
decided  opposition  against  a  change.  In  addition  to 
all  this  came  secret  support  from  the  government  at 
Washington,  whose  long  meditated  designs  on  the 
Pacific  coast  received  incentive  from  the  rumor  of 
similar  intentions  on  the  part  of  France  and  England. 
The  Mexican  bondholders  in  the  latter  country  were 
at  least  seeking  territorial  indemnity,  and  British  sub- 
jects were  planning  enterprises,  to  be  planted  on 
Mexican  soil. 

The  Monroe  and  manifest  destiny  doctrines  would 
have  sufficed  to  rouse  the  attention  of  the  northern 
republic ;  but  party  schemes  gave  it  additional  mo- 
tives to  prompt  action.  Thomas  O.  Larkin,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, who,  since  his  arrival  at  Monterey  in  1832 
in  his  thirtieth  year,  had  acquired  influence  as  a  gen- 
eral trader,  and  been  appointed  consul  for  his  govern- 
ment in  1843,  was  two  years  later  commissioned 
secret  and  confidential  agent  of  the  administration  at 
Washington,  with  instructions  to  create  a  favorable 
feeling  toward  the  United  States,  and  impress  the 
advantages  of  a  union  with  that  country  ;  to  counter- 
act English  sympathies,  and  to  keep  his  government 
fully  informed  concerning  the  turn  of  aflaias.  Larkin 
devoted  himself  to  the  charge  with  tact  and  zeal,  al- 
though thwarted  somewhat  by  the  indiscretion  and 
ambition  of  his  later  associates. 

Their  several  successful  revolutions,  the  separation 
of  Texas  and  the  dissensions  and  weakness  of  Mex- 
ico, had  impressed  upon  Californians  the  possibility  of 
a  speedy  change,  to  which  attendant  rise  in  land 
values,  expanding  trade,  and  wider  prosperity  lent 
attractions.  Loyalty  was  weak,  and  independence 
tempting  ;  but  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  autonomy 
was  apparent,  and  inclined  the  more  perspicacious 


THOMAS  O.  LARKIN".  179 

either  toward  annexation,  or  in  suspicious  defiance  to 
cling  to  Mexico,  while  a  few  favored  European  inter- 
vention as  the  best  middle  course.  Alvarado  pre- 
ferred the  latter,  and  Governor  Pico  upheld  an  English 
protectorate  as  most  promising  to  his  aspirations  for 
title,  office,  and  wealth,  while  General  Vallejo  favored 
the  strong  arm  of  the  United  States.  At  one  time, 
indeed,  it  was  proposed  to  consider  the  question  in  a 
general  council,  which  did  not  take  effect,  however. 

The  growing  party  was  for  annexation,  and  em- 
braced a  large  proportion  of  the  independents  and  the 
wealthy,  together  with  the  preponderating  and  fast 
increasing  number  of  immigrants.  It  was  fostered 
by  Larkin's  efforts,  by  the  apathy  of  the  people,  by 
love  of  independence,  and  by  the  prospect  that  Euro- 
pean armed  interference  would  afford  but  a  temporary 
remedy,  as  the  United  States  would  never  permit 
permanent  occupation  from  that  quarter. 

It  needed  only  a  spark  to  ignite  the  combustible 
material,  and  that  was  applied  by  Fremont,  a  lieuten- 
ant of  topographical  engineers,  born  in  Georgia  in 
1813,  who  had  been,  by  virtue  of  his  position  as  son- 
in-law  to  Senator  Benton,  entrusted  with  the  survey 
exploring  expeditions  to  the  Pacific  coast  in  1842-5, 
which  brought  him  into  prominence  as  a  so-called 
pathfinder.  The  name  was  bestowed  by  his  ad- 
miring friends,  for  he  himself  claimed  only  to  have 
scientifically  explored  ground  trodden  before,  and  to 
have  given  official  information  concerning  it,  the  first 
important  step  in  the  great  transcontinental  surveys. 

His  third  expedition,  the  second  into  California, 
occurred  during  the  troubled  spring  of  1846.  In 
view  of  the  designs  on  the  country,  he  had  received 
instructions  to  examine  more  widely  and  minutely 
into  its  resources  and  affairs.  The  provincial  author- 
ities of  California  permitted  him  to  halt  and  recruit 
his  party  for  the  proposed  march  to  Oregon.  He 
abused  the  privilege  by  penetrating  into  the  heart  of 
the  province,  close  to  the  bay  of  Monterey,  with  his 


T80  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

armed  force  of  60  men.  When  ordered  away  by  the 
alarmed  officials,  he  most  foolishly  and  unjustifiably 
aggravated  the  fault  by  intrenching  himself  at 
Gavilan  peak  on  March  6th,  and  hoisting  his  flag. 
General  Castro  promptly  gathered  200  men  with  a 
view  to  enforce  the  order.  This  brought  Fremont  to 
his  senses.  He  recognized  that  a  collision  might  com- 
promise both  himself  and  his  government,  and  was  at 
least  premature.  Swallowing  his  chagrin,  he  slunk 
away  by  night,  and  abandoned  his  camp  to  the  ex- 
ultant Castro. 

Fremont  had  blunderingly  anticipated  the  wishes 
of  his  principals.  On  the  way  to  Oregon,  now  re- 
sumed, he  was  overtaken  by  Lieutenant  Gillespie,  a 
secret  messenger  from  Washington,  with  instructions 
that,  in  the  event  of  war  with  Mexico,  he  and  Larkin 
should  take  possession  of  California,  and  prevent  any 
occupation  by  a  European  power,  and  conciliate  the 
people  so  as  to  facilitate  such  seizure,  or  win  them 
over  for  voluntary  annexation,  should  no  war  occur. 

Fremont  welcomed  the  message  as  a  carte-blanche 
for  any  liberties  he  might  see  fit  to  take,  in  view  of  a 
seemingly  inevitable  war.  He  longed  to  initiate  so 
important  an  enterprise,  perhaps  to  become  the  leader 
in  an  independent  state,  and  to  fling  back  the  taunts 
cast  upon  his  somewhat  ignoble  retreat.  To  this  end 
he  counted  not  only  on  his  three  score  followers,  but 
on  the  imposing  number  of  adventurers  and  immi- 
grants from  the  states,  who,  ^inspired  by  Texan  pre- 
cepts, by  the  comparatively  defenceless  condition  of 
the  province,  and  the  long-nursed  doctrines  of  the 
rights  of  the  strongest,  had  been  agitating  the  ex- 
pediency of  adopting  the  course  opened  by  the  lone- 
star  republic.  Numbers  were  attracted  not  alone  by 
the  security,  development,  and  prosperity  foreshad- 
owed by  annexation  to  the  United  States,  but  by 
the  excitement  and  gains  of  a  campaign,  the  glory 
of  figuring  as  liberators,  and  the  honor  and  emolu- 
ments of  office.  They  regarded  themselves  as  strong 


JOHN  C.  FREMONT.  181 

enough  to  withstand  a  blow,  and  perceiving  the  ap- 
proaching opportunity,  looked  about  for  an  excuse  to 
inflict  it.  The  orders  from  Mexico,  to  expel  unauthor- 
ized American  settlers,  although  not  enforced,  were 
dragged  forward  as  an  impending  outrage,  to  be  ag- 
gravated, it  was  assumed,  by  turning  loose  the  Indians 
upon  them.  The  apparent  ejection  of  Fremont,  and 
the  attendant  armament  and  proclamations  of  Castro 
against  foreigners,  lent  color  to  the  fictitious  alarm, 

o  o 

and  pointed  at  the  same  time  to  a  leader. 

A  representative  portion  of  the  conspirators  ac- 
cordingly went  to  meet  the  explorer,  whose  plea  of 
scanty  supplies,  mountain  snows,  and  hostile  Indians, 
as  the  reasons  for  his  return,  were  regarded  as  purely 
a  cloak  for  official  intrigues.  Not  yet  prepared  to  un- 
mask, he  nevertheless  encouraged  them  to  begin  oper- 
ations, promising  to  bring  forward  his  men  to  oppose 
any  Californian  troops  sent  against  them.  This  would 
shield  his  government,  and  leave  him  greater  freedom 
to  decide  upon  his  course — to  step  in  the  wake  of 
victory  to  success,  or  to  escape  under  the  guise  of 
neutrality.  The  role  assigned  to  the  United  States 
was  not  very  dignified,  but  the  prize  was  tempting 
and  principles  easy. 

Regardless  of  the  critical  condition  of  affairs,  the 
governor  and  comandante-general  of  the  province 
kept  up  a  quarrel  for  the  supremacy  and  the  control  of 
the  revenue.  By  virtue  of  his  military  force  and  the 
custody  of  the  leading'  custom-house,  Castro  secured 
two-thirds  of  the  fund,  on  the  ground  that  the  north 
must  be  guarded  against  the  Americans.  Pressed 
by  his  hungry  supporters,  Pico  enrolled  a  force  of 
100  men,  and  set  forth  to  correct  his  misguided  lieu- 
tenant. Castro  proved  even  more  successful  in  his 
enlistment,  by  calling  for  defenders  of  the  country,  to 
be  used  against  foreign  or  local  foe,  as  circumstances 
might  require.  For  their  equipment  he  sent  to 
Vallejo  for  170  horses.  This  preparation  was  de- 
clared by  the  United  States'  conspirators  to  be  a 


182  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

measure  directed  against  them,  and  at  Fremont's  sug- 
gestion the  band  of  horses  was  pursued  and  captured. 

The  first  step  thus  taken,  on  June  10,  1846,  hesi- 
tation vanished.  Four  days  later  a  party,  barely 
three  dozen  strong,  pounced  upon  Sonoma,  the  only 
military  post  north  of  San  Francisco  bay,  yet  without 
garrison.  They  secured  200  muskets,  nine  cannon, 
and  some  horses,  General  Vallejo  and  his  asso- 
ciates being  sent  as  prisoners  to  Sutter's  fort,  of 
which  Fremont  took  possession.  The  captors,  under 
the  temporary  leadership  of  W.  B.  Ide,  proclaimed 
the  California  republic,  and  hoisted  a  flag  bearing  the 
design  of  the  Texan  lone  star  and  a  grizzly  bear,  the 
United  States'  aegis  not  being  as  yet  authorized.  In 
the  proclamation  plausible  reasons  for  revolt  were 
duly  advanced,  regardless  of  truth,  with  promises  of 
reform  and  protection,  embracing  freedom  from  im- 
posts, involuntary  taxation  and  military  service. 
The  levy  of  forced  loans  served  to  impress  upon  the 
passive  population  the  prospective  value  of  these  uto- 
pian  privileges.  In  answer  to  an  appeal  by  the 
sufferers  the  captain  of  the  United  States'  war  vessel 
Portsmouth  denied  that  the  movement  was  authorized 
by  his  government,  yet  he  sent  supplies  to  Fremont. 

Castro  promptly  issued  a  call  to  arms,  but  so  slow 
was  the  response  that  his  force  increased  to  barely 
160  men  during  the  following  ten  days.  One  of  its 
three  divisions  was  sent  north  in  advance  to  retake 
Sonoma,  but  after  a  skirmish  with  Ide's  party,  being 
unsupported  by  the  remaining  bodies,  it  retreated, 
and  thereby  so  discouraged  the  entire  command,  that 
Castro  fell  back  to  Santa  Clara,  thence  to  urge  on 
Pico  the  necessity  for  conciliation  and  cooperation. 
The  latter  took  advantage  of  the  emergency  to  gain 
followers  to  his  standard  with  a  view  to  obtain  the 
control  of  the  campaign,  but  with  even  less  success 
than  his  rival,  whom  he  thereupon  joined  with  ill 
grace. 

The  first  advance  of  Castro  had  spread  no  little 


JOHN  DRAKE  SLOAT.  183 

alarm  among  the  American  settlers,  particularly  on 
observing  the  neutrality  of  the  war  vessel.  They 
were  losing  confidence  in  Ide,  and  called  therefore 
with  double  reason  on  Fremont  to  redeem  his  prom- 
ise. The  latter  found  himself  bound  to  comply, 
and  set  forth  on  June  23d  for  Sonoma  and  San 
Rafael  without  meeting  a  foe.  He  now  persuaded 
the  commander  of  the  United  States  war  vessel 
Moscow  to  lend  his  aid  in  entering  the  presidio  of 
San  Francisco  and  spiking  its  ten  guns.  After  cel- 
ebrating the  fourth  of  July  the  insurgents  formally 
vested  the  command  in  Fremont.  The  independence 
of  California  was  affirmed,  but  on  reaching  Sutter's 
fort  on  July  llth  the  filibuster  captain  learned  that 
rumors  of  a  declaration  of  war,  together  with  his 
overt  acts,  had  encouraged  Commodore  Sloat  to 
hoist  the  United  States  flag  at  Monterey.  This  in 
turn  prompted  him  to  supplant  in  similar  form  the 
Bear  flag,  which  he  had  sustained  merely  as  a  guise. 
Ide,  who  had  sought  to  figure  as  another  Houston, 
sank  out  of  sight,  and  to  Fremont  was  accorded  the 
questionable  glory  of  the  movement.  He  certainly 
had  asssisted  to  start  the  revolution,  useless  and  un- 
justifiable though  it  was,  and  had  stepped  forward 
to  give  it  fresh  life  and  new  direction  under  semi- 
official auspices,  which  gave  color  to  Sloat's  important 
intervention. 

The  Oregon  question  revealed  the  eagerness  of 
the  United  States  to  extend  her  dominion  to  the 
Pacific  shore.  The  desire  for  a  symmetric  outline 
which  must  include  California,  possessed  as  she  was 
of  the  only  good  harbors  south  of  Puget  sound,  was 
but  natural.  To  this  must  be  added  the  resolve  on  the 
part  of  the  southern  states  to  balance  the  growing 
power  of  the  northern  division.  To  this  end  war  was 
forced  upon  Mexico,  for  which  preparations  had  so 
long  been  made,  partly  by  keeping  a  fleet  in  readiness 
in  the  Pacific,  with  standing  orders  to  watch  the 


184:  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

movement  of  English  war  vessels,  lest  they  forestall 
the  Americans  in  occupying  California,  and  to  take 
possession  here  at  the  first  news  of  war  and  reconcile 
the  inhabitants  to  a  union  with  the  eastern  states. 

The  reality  of  English  pretensions  in  California  is 
subject  to  grave  doubts.  The  determined  attitude  of 
the  Americans  in  the  Oregon  affair,  and  their  well- 
known  designs  on  the  adjacent  coast,  must  have 
cooled  the  ardor  of  the  British  to  wedge  themselves 
in  among  such  an  aggressive  people,  with  the  at- 
tendant risk  of  a  conflict,  or  at  least  of  trouble. 
Their  admiral  certainty  exhibited  no  eagerness  in  the 
matter,  and  the  scheme  of  McNamara  to  establish 
an  Irish  colony  here  appears  to  have  emanated  from 
speculators,  connected  perhaps  with  the  vain  efforts 
of  British  bondholders  to  secure  territorial  in- 
demnity. 

Before  the  arrival  of  the  official  notifications  of 
war  from  Washington,  Commodore  Sloat  received 
such  reports  of  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  on  the 
Texan  border  that  he  hastened  to  California  with  his 
fleet  of  four  vessels.  Here  his  resolution  failed  him, 
however,  and  several  days  were  wasted  in  vacillating 
consultations.  Fremont's  energetic  movements,  par- 
ticularly in  spiking  the  guns  at  San  Francisco,  finally 
decided  him,  and  on  July  7,  1846,  he  landed  at  Mon- 
terey, seized  the  unprotected  post,  and  hoisted  the 
stars  and  stripes.  Within  the  following  few  days  the 
flag  was  likewise  unfurled  at  San  Francisco  and 
Sonoma  by  Sloat's  officers,  and  at  Sutter's  fort  by 
Fremont,  and  soon  after  at  San  Jose,  whence  Castro 
had  retreated  on  the  8th. 

Fremont  promptly  continued  his  advance  by  turn- 
ing from  Sutter's  fort  to  Santa  Clara  valley,  with  a  bat- 
talion now  swelled  to  160  men  by  enlistment  of  the 
Bear  insurgents.  After  entering  San  Juan,  and  thus 
completing  the  occupation  of  northern  California,  he 
proceeded  to  Monterey  to  confer  with  Sloat.  The 
timid  commodore  had  by  this  time  begun  to  doubt 


ROBERT   F.  STOCKTON.  185 

whether  the  war  news  received  by  him  was  reliable, 
and  feared  that  his  instructions  might  have  been  over- 
stepped. On  learning  that  Fremont  had  acted  on  his 
own  responsibility,  he  was  horrified,  and  declared  that 
his  own  act  had  been  based  entirely  on  those  of  the 
captain,  an  attempt  to  shirk  responsibility,  which  re- 
dounded greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  latter. 

Just  then  arrived  Captain  R.  F.  Stockton,  an  ener- 
getic, resolute  man,  next  in  rank  to  Sloat,  who  freely 
expressed  the  opinion  that  existing  orders  justified 
even  wider  action  than  had  been  taken.  In  feeble 
health,  and  in  daily  expectation  of  being  relieved  at 
his  own  request,  Sloat  was  glad  to  surrender  to  the 
other  the  squadron,  with  the  pending  responsibility. 
As  commander-in-chief  also  of  the  land  forces,  Stock- 
ton enrolled  the  ex-Bears  as  a  battalion  of  volunteers, 
with  Fremont  as  major  and  Gillespie  as  captain,  and 
sent  them  to  San  Diego,  thence  to  cooperate  with  him 
in  completing  the  conquest. 

Sloat  had  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  California 
incorporated  with  the  United  States,  and  her  inhabi- 
tants in  full  enjoyment  of  all  existing  privileges,  to- 
gether with  those  of  their  new  country,  implying 
numerous  reforms,  lessened  taxation,  greater  security, 
increased  prosperity,  and  other  blessings.  This  bold 
announcement,  somewhat  premature  under  the  ap- 
parent nature  of  the  war,  and  hardty  in  accord  with 
Sloat's  vacillation,  might  properly  have  been  affirmed 
by  the  new  commodore.  But,  on  the  contrary,  he 
issued  another  proclamation,  filled  with  bombast  and 
false  charges  of  outrages  on  Fremont  and  others,  and 
of  prevailing  disorders,  which  required  him  to  go  in  pur- 
suit of  marauders  and  to  hold  California  until  redress 
should  be  obtained.  This  was  clearly  instigated  by 
Fremont,  and  intended  to  magnify  Stockton's  task, 
while  shielding  him  in  case  no  war  should  have  broken 

O 

out.  The  latter  explained,  moreover,  to  his  government 
that  prompt  action  was  required  to  protect  American 
immigrants  against  the  Californians,  and  to  prevent  the 


186  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

lavish  disposition  of  land  and  other  public  property 
by  the  governor. 

Castro  and  Pico  continued  their  retreat  with  grad- 
ually diminishing  forces.  A  fresh  appeal  at  Los 
Angeles  for  defence  of  fireside  and  freedom  evoked 
little  more  than  empty  excuses  in  response  to  fear  and 
pride.  The  people  had  lost  confidence  in  their  leaders 
and  their  troops,  who  were  regarded  as  marauders ; 
and  they  looked  upon  defence  as  hopeless  against  the 
existing  odds.  With  barely  a  hundred  unreliable 
followers  left.  Castro  sought  to  o-ain  time  for  consid- 

O  O 

eration  by  proposing  a  truce  to  Stockton,  who  had 
landed  at  San  Pedro  to  prepare  for  marching  on  the 
capital.  He  had  also  hopes  of  favorable  terms  from 
the  invaders.  The  avowed  policy  of  peaceful  acquisi- 
tion should  have  prompted  the  commodore  to  listen 
to  overtures.  He  thirsted  for  fame,  however,  with  all 
the  ambition  inherited  from  his  long  descended  New 
Jersey  family,  and  preferred  to  remove  the  existing 
authorities  in  order  to  obtain  free  sway.  Nor  were  his 
reasons  for  the  step  altogether  wrong  ;  for  negotiations 
would  be  tantamount  to  recognition  of  them  and  their 
acts,  and  give  them  other  undesirable  advantages,  while 
any  concessions  on  their  part  would  be  invalid  without 
approval  from  Mexico.  Neither  Castro  nor  Pico  re- 
garded it  as  consistent  with  their  honor  as  Mexican 
officials  to  tender  the  province  to  the  enemy.  Both, 
therefore,  departed  for  the  southern  border,  the  for- 
mer to  end  his  days  in  the  military  service  of  his 
country  in  Lower  California,  while  Pico  soon  returned 
to  his  large  estates,  and  to  the  many  friends  whom  he 
had  enriched  with  large  and  occasionally  ante-dated 
land  grants. 

After  four  days'  drilling  of  his  360  sailors  and 
marines,  Stockton  proceeded  to  Los  Angeles,  entering 
there  on  August  13th  with  Fremont,  who  had  ap- 
proached from  San  Diego  with  his  battalion.  A  fresh 
proclamation,  signed  by  the  former  as  conimander-in- 
chief  and  governor  of  California,  declared  the  country 


GILLESPIE.  187 

a  portion  of  the  United  States,  to  be  governed  for  the 
present  by  military  law,  yet  with  local  authorities,  to 
be  elected  by  the  people  on  September  15th.  A  duty 
of  fifteen  per  cent  ad  valorem  was  imposed  on  foreign 
goods. 

Definite  war  news  being  now  received,  Stockton 
declared  all  Mexican  ports  south  of  San  Diego  under 
blockade,  and  prepared  to  depart  with  his  squadron 
to  enforce  it,  and  perhaps,  with  the  aid  of  enlistments 
in  California,  to  fight  his  way  through  Mexico  and 
join  General  Taylor.  To  this  end  he  appointed  Fre- 
mont military  commander  of  the  province,  now  di- 
vided into  three  departments,  with  orders  to  increase 
his  battalion  to  three  hundred  men,  and  garrison  the 
towns.  Gillespie  was  left  in  charge  of  the  southern 
district,  centering  in  Los  Angeles,  Lieutenant  Mad- 
dox  of  the  central,  stationed  at  Monterey,  and  Captain 
Montgomery  of  the  northern,  with  headquarters  at 
San  Francisco.  The  commodore's  dreams  of  naval 
operations  were  rudely  interrupted,  however. 

The  departure  northward  of  the  main  force,  leav- 
ing only  small  garrisons  at  Los  Angeles  and  Santa 
Barbara,  and  none  at  San  Diego,  had  revived  the 
somewhat  depressed  spirit  of  the  southern  Califor- 
nians.  The  mutual  recriminations  on  the  score  of 
the  pusillanimous  surrender  to  the  invaders  roused  a 
certain  braggardism,  which,  to  say  the  least,  was  at 
Los  Angeles  ill-timed,  and  showed  want  of  considera- 
tion on  the  part  of  Gillespie  and  his  solders  for  oppo- 
nents whom  they  had  learned  unduly  to  despise.  The 
instigations  of  several  paroled  Mexican  officers,  and 
the  boisterous  impudence  of  a  band  of  young  revel- 
ers under  S.  Varcla,  fanned  the  smouldering  patriot- 
ism, and  300  men  took  up  arms.  So  imposing  a 
force  called  for  proper  organization,  and  Captain  J. 
M.  Flores  was  chosen  comandante-general,  with  J. 
A.  Garrillo  and  Andres  Pico  as  second  and  third. 
Their  inspiring  idea  was  not  exactly  to  defeat  the 
invaders,  but  to  uphold  the  national  flag  in  sufficient 


188  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

strength  to  promote  the  restoration  of  the  province 
to  Mexico  by  treaty,  as  still  unconquered. 

Aglow  with  the  capture  of  a  foreign  posse  at 
Chimo  Rancho,  the  Californians  pressed  so  closely 
round  Gillespie,  who  had  weakened  himself  by  send- 
ing a  detachment  to  garrison  San  Diego,  that  he  ac- 
cepted their  offer,  at  the  close  of  September  1846,  to 
return  with  honors  of  war  to  San  Pedro,  for  embark- 
ation. The  still  smaller  body  holding  Santa  Barbara 
prudently  escaped  by  night  before  the  gathering  revo- 
lutionists, and  the  one  at  San  Diego  withdrew  to  a 
whaler  in  the  harbor,  thence  to  watch  the  turn  in 
affairs.  Preparations  were  thereupon  made  for  a 
guerilla  warfare,  M.  Castro  being  commissioned  to 
direct  operations  in  the  north,  with  headquarters  at 
San  Luis  Obispo. 

On  learning  of  the  revolt,  Captain  Mervine  was  sent 
to  San  Pedro  with  350  men  to  join  Gillespie  in  re- 
gaining the  lost  ground.  No  animals  could  be  ob- 
tained either  for  mounting  men  or  dragging  cannon, 
so  Mervine  advanced  on  foot  with  small  arms  alone. 
The  well-mounted  Californians  hovered  round, 
harassing  the  force  with  impunity,  and  using  with 
great  effect  a  rapidly  wheeled  gun  upon  the  solid 
ranks.  After  losing  several  men,  Mervine  perceived 
the  futility  of  pursuing  flying  artillery  and  cavalry 
under  such  disadvantage,  and  accordingly  turned  back 
to  his  vessels.  He  did  not  know  that  the  last  volley 
of  the  jubilant  Californians  had  exhausted  their  am- 
munition. Stockton  arrived  shortly  afterward,  and 
was  likewise  impressed  with  the  difficulty  of  a  march 
on  Los  Angeles  against  a  foe,  which  by  sundry  strate- 
gies had  greatly  magnified  their  forces.  One  device 
was  to  display  their  men  in  a  circuitous  march  be- 
tween the  hills  in  such  a  manner,  that  each  man 
was  counted  several  times.  He  therefore  sailed 
onward  with  the  entire  command  to  San  Diego, 
thence  to  seek  the  needed  animals  in  Lower  Califor- 


STEPHEN  W.  KEARNY.  189 

nia,  and  await  the  arrival  overland  of  Fremont,  who 
was  equipping  in  the  north. 

The  Californians  exhibited  corresponding  energy. 
The  assembly  met  on  October  26th  and  elected 
Flores  governor  and  general  ad  interim,  declaring  the 
province  in  a  state  of  siege.  In  order  to  obtain  funds 
it  was  proposed  to  annul  Pico's  hasty  sales  of  mission 
property  and  hypothecate  it.  These  and  other  meas- 
ures for  defence  were  partially  neutralized  by  a  revival 
of  the  petty  jealousies  which  had  so  long  embroiled  the 
officials.  Flores  was  a  Mexican,  and  although  doing 
his  duty  well  and  in  good  faith,  the  Californians  pre- 
ferred a  leader  from  among  themselves.  Intrigue  and 
demoralization  ensued,  based  partly  on  Flores'  indis- 
pensable levies  for  supplies.  The  conspirators  act- 
ually ventured  to  arrest  the  general,  but  the  assembly 
interposed  and  reinstated  him.  Similar  discord 
threatened  to  befall  their  opponents. 

Colonel  S.  W.  Kearny  had  achieved  the  conquest 
of  New  Mexico  during  the  summer  of  1846  in  so 
effective  a  manner  as  to  be  rewarded  with  the  rank  of 
brigadier-general,  in  which  capacity  he  was  instructed 
to  hasten  on  to  California,  occupy  it  in  cooperation 
with  the  naval  forces,  and  organize  a  civil  govern- 
ment. He  promptly  obeyed,  but  learning  on  the  way 
from  Stockton  that  possession  of  the  province  had 
been  secured,  he  proceeded  with  only  120  dragoons 
and  two  guns.  On  December  5th  he  reached  San 
Pasenal,  not  far  from  San  Diego,  whence  Stockton 
had  sent  Gillespie  with  a  party  to  bid  him  welcome. 
Andres  Pico  was  hovering  round  the  place  with 
eighty  men,  intent  on  cutting  off  Gillespie,  and  wholly 
unaware  of  any  other  force.  On  perceiving  him  the 
following  day,  Kearny's  men  gave  chase,  regardless  of 
the  fact  that  they  were  mounted  on  tired  and  badly 
broken  animals  and  with  firearms  rendered  useless  by 
the  night's  rain.  Pico's  men  at  first  retreated,  but 
on  beholding  the  straggling  order  and  embarrassed 
position  of  the  pursuers,  they  turned,  and  with  their 


190  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

advantage  as  excellent  horsemen,  wielding  weapons 
in  unencumbered  hands,  fell  like  an  avalanche  on 
the  dragoons.  Kearny's  rear  coming  up  the  canon, 
they  were  forced  to  continue  the  retreat,  leaving  the 
field  to  the  Americans.  The  blunder  of  the  general 
had  cost  eighteen  killed  and  two  dozen  wounded, 
while  the  Californians  escaped  almost  unscathed. 
Stockton  sent  two  hundred  men  to  escort  the  demor- 
alized body  to  San  Diego. 

Fremont,  now  promoted  to  a  lieutenant-colonelcy, 
had  spent  some  time  round  Monterey,  procuring  horses 
and  supplies  against  receipts  forced  upon  the  unwill- 
ing farmers,  and  enlisting  recruits,  including  a  com- 
pany of  Indians.  With  nearly  450  men  he  thereupon 
set  out  from  San  Juan  at  the  close  of  November, 
driving  before  him  the  poorly  equipped  and  dwindling 
forces  of  M.  Castro.  Two  skirmishes  between  Amer- 
ican footmen  and  the  swift  California  cavalry  had  in- 
spired respect  for  the  latter  here  as  in  the  south, 
and  Fremont  thought  it  advisable  to  move  with  great 

o  o 

caution,  and  at  times  by  untrodden  and  difficult 
paths,  in  order  to  avoid  pitfalls  for  his  untrained  fol- 
lowers. So  slow  was  his  advance  that  a  month  passed 
before  he  reached  Santa  Barbara.  Thence  he  turned 
toward  Los  Angeles,  to  effect  a  junction  with  the 
southern  main  body  of  600  men  which  left  San  Diego 
on  December  29th,  under  Stockton  and  Kearny,  the 
latter  yielding  to  the  commodore  the  position  of 
commander-in-chief,  by  virtue  of  his  superior  force, 
and  the  relief  extended  to  himself. 

The  approach  of  two  such  formidable  columns 
spread  no  little  alarm  in  the  intermediate  districts. 
The  rancheros  began  to  hide  supplies  from  the  revo- 
lutionists, and  to  prepare  for  securing  pardon.  Flores 
sought  to  gain  time  for  the  cause  by  suggesting  a 
truce  to  Stockton,  on  the  ground  that  peace  had 
probably  been  arranged  in  Mexico.  The  only  reply 
was  an  offer  of  amnesty  to  all  Californians  save 
Flores,  for  having  broken  his  parole.  The  lingering 


R.  B.  MASON.  191 

prestige  of  their  several  small  successes  in  the  field, 
still  held  together  nearly  500  men  under  his  banner, 
although  demoralized  by  discord,  mismanagement, 
hardships,  and  fear  of  consequences.  With  this  body 
Flores  attempted,  on  January  8,  1847,  to  dispute  the 
fording  of  the  river  near  San  Gabriel.  His  two  guns 
were  soon  silenced,  and  after  some  feeble  demonstra- 
tions the  Californians  disappeared.  Two  days  later 
Stockton  reentered  the  capital 

The  following  day  Fremont  reached  San  Fernando, 
there  to  be  prevailed  upon  by  the  revolutionary  lead- 
ers to  grant  an  armistice  and  conclude  the  treaty  of 
Cahuenga,  dated  January  13th,  with  Andres  Pico,  to 
whom  Flores  and  Castro  had  surrendered  the  com- 
mand. All  Californians  wrere  thereby  pardoned,  on 
surrendering  the  public  weapons,  consisting  of  two 
guns  and  six  muskets,  and  promising  not  to  take  up 
arms  again ;  they  were  moreover  accorded  all  the 
privileges  of  American  citizens  without  taking  oath  of 
allegiance.  It  was  wise  to  remove  all  ill-feeling  and 
apprehension  by  such  generous  conditions  ;  but  Fre- 
mont had  no  right  to  grant  them  when  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  was  so  near,  and  no  pressure  existed. 
The  Californians  counted  of  course  on  his  supposed 
greater  liberality,  and  he  was  eager  for  popularity 
and  prominence.  The  commodore  was  offended  for 
awhile,  but  could  not  well  refrain  from  approving  the 
terms,  particularly  as  Kearny  stood  prepared  for  a 
quarrel  and  sought  to  win  Fremont  to  his  side. 

Kearny  understood,  and  rightly,  that  the  supreme 
command  of  the  land  forces  and  the  governorship 
would  fall  to  him  on  his  arrival.  Stockton,  on  the 
other  hand,  declared  that  those  instructions  were 
superseded  by  the  fact  that  he  and  Fremont  had 
achieved  the  conquest  and  established  civil  government, 
as  he  termed  it,  in  accordance  with  prior  instructions. 
In  order  to  sustain  this  point  the  commodore  pre- 
vailed on  Fremont  to  side  with  him  in  consideration 
of  a  commission  as  governor,  issued  to  him  on  Janu- 


192  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

ary  14th,  with  Major  Russell  as  secretary  of  state. 
Finding  his  orders  ignored,  and  the  command  of  the 
naval  troops  withdrawn  from  him,  Kearny  fumed  and 
vowed  vengeance ;  but  although  the  Mormon  bat- 
talion, 300  strong,  arrived  at  this  juncture,  he  thought 
it  imprudent  to  provoke  hostilities.  His  forbearance 
was  rewarded.  At  that  very  time  Commodore  Shu- 
brick  came  to  supersede  Stockton  in  the  command  of 
the  squadron,  and  while  affirming  the  rights  of  the 
general,  he  urged  a  peaceful  settlement.  On  retiring, 
January  19th,  Stockton  nevertheless  turned  over  the 
command  to  Fremont  at  Los  Angeles.  The  latter 
could  not  be  blamed  for  supporting  the  man  to  whom 
he  owed  so  much,  nor  for  accepting  the  control  until 
the  two  contestants  had  settled  the  dispute.  He  pro- 
claimed the  establishment  of  civil  rule,  disbanded  a 
proportion  of  the  volunteers,  and  raised  some  money 
for  current  expenses,  although  not  without  trouble  in 
view  of  the  doubts  cast  upon  his  authority.  The 
assembly  called  by  Stockton  did  not  meet,  chiefly  be- 
cause several  of  the  California  appointees  refused  to 
appear  in  a  suspicious  role  while  the  political  destinies 
of  the  province  were  still  involved  in  obscurity. 

Kearny  had  referred  his  case  to  Washington,  and 
in  February  Colonel  R.  B.  Mason  arrived  with  orders 
for  the  senior  officer  of  land  forces  to  assume  the  po- 
sition of  governor,  but  that  Kearny,  as  well  as  Fre- 
mont, should  retire  on  the  completion  of  the  conquest, 
leaving  to  Mason  the  civil  and  military  command. 
On  the  1st  of  March,  accordingly,  the  general,  in 
conjunction  with  Shubrick,  issued  a  circular,  in  which 
the  former  announced  his  assumption  of  the  governor- 
ship, with  Monterey  as  capital.  California  would  re- 
main under  military  rule  until  a  territorial  government 
was  provided  by  congress.  Los  Angeles  was  reduced 
to  headquarters  for  the  southern  district,  the  command 
of  which  was  assigned  to  Cooke  of  the  Mormon  bat- 
talion, soon  replaced  by  Stevenson  of  the  New  York 
volunteers.  His  own  battalion  Fremont  was  ordered 


TRIAL  OF  FREMONT.  193 

to  enroll  into  regular  service,  and  to  surrender  all  offi- 
cial documents  at  the  new  capital.  As  Kearny  had 
not  condescended  to  state  his  authority,  Fremont 
naturally  assumed  that  he  sought  to  revive  the  old 
question  and  ignored  the  order.  Indeed,  he  issued 
directions  as  governor  for  three  weeks  longer,  and 
when  the  battalion  exhibited  its  distrust  for  the  ser- 
vice, he  maintained  it  for  the  protection  of  the  dis- 
trict, as  he  called  it.  Mason  represented  the  case  so 
bluntly  to  the  explorer  that  a  duel  nearly  ensued. 
Finally  Fremont  yielded,  and  was  obliged  at  the  close 
of  May  to  accompany  the  irate  general  eastward  with 
his  topographing  party.  On  reaching  Fort  Leav- 
enworth  he  was  declared  under  arrest,  and  ordered  to 
report  at  Washington. 

His  trial  lasted  several  months.  With  Senator 
Benton  and  W.  Carey  Jones  for  advocates,  his  case 
was  so  ably  handled  as  to  enlist  general  sympathy  for 
him  as  an  ill-used  hero,  who  had  performed  the  most 
signal  services  for  the  country  as  explorer,  conqueror, 
and  statesman.  The  court  had  nevertheless  to  find 
him  guilty  of  disobedience  to  his  superior  officer,  and 
sentence  him  to  dismissal  from  the  army.  The  presi- 
dent remitted  the  penalty,  but  Fremont  refused  clem- 
ency, and  sent  in  his  resignation.  On  the  strength 
of  his  fame  bolstered  by  the  trial  he  returned  to  Cal- 
ifornia to  seek  political  honors  and  wealth  from  his 
Mariposa  estates.  A  few  years  later  he  figured  as 
candidate  for  the  presidency.  Stockton,  who  aspired 
to  a  similar  honor,  resigned  in  1849,  on  inheriting  a 
fortune,  and  represented  New  Jersey  in  the  federal 
senate.  Kearny  died  before  the  close  of  1848,  after 
being  nominated  major-general  for  gallant  conduct  at 
San  Pascuel ! 

Among  the  results  of  Fremont's  operations  were 
claims  for  outrages,  loans,  and  levies,  which  troubled 
alike  the  respondents,  the  sufferers,  and  the  govern- 
ment. In  1852  a  board  was  appointed  to  examine 
the  matter,  and  after  a  session  of  three  years  out  of 


C.  B.— II.     13 


194  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  total  claim  of  about  $1,000,000  $157,000  was 
recommended  for  payment,  and  $187,000  for  consider- 
ation, the  rest  being  either  rejected  or  suspended. 

Prior  to  the  treaty  California  was  under  provisional 
occupation,  subject  to  military  rule,  and  to  a  govern- 
ment responsible  to  the  president,  existing  methods 
being  continued  in  accordance  with  policy  and  inter- 
national law.  Sloat  went  too  far,  therefore,  in  prom- 
ising annexation,  as  did  Kearny,  also,  in  absolving 
the  people  from  their  allegiance  to  Mexico,  and  in 
demanding  from  officials  an  oath  to  the  constitution. 
When,  after  the  treaty,  congress  neglected  to  provide 
a  territorial  organization,  the  existing  de  facto  govern- 
ment continued. 

Colonel  Mason  of  the  1st  United  States  dragoons 
assumed  office  as  orovernor  and  commander-in-chief  of 

O 

the  forces  on  May  31st.  A  few  rumors  and  rash  ut- 
terances kept  the  authorities  on  the  alert.  Santa 
Barbara,  for  instance,  was  fined  for  the  mysterious 
disappearance  of  a  cannon,  and  Pico  was  placed  under 
arrest  when  he  returned  to  claim  the  governorship, 
on  the  ground  that  an  armistice  with  Mexico  left  the 
former  officials  free  to  exercise  their  functions. 

Order  was  maintained  with  the  aid  first  of  the 
Mormon  battalion,  the  greater  portion  of  which  crossed 
Arizona  and  arrived  at  San  Diego  toward  the  close 
of  January  1847.  The  fear  inspired  by  their  evil 
reputation  proved  groundless,  for  their  behavior  was 
of  the  best,  and  their  services  were  in  demand  by 
farmers  and  other  employers.  They  were  mustered 
out  in  July  1847,  and  half  of  the  number  returned 
home  at  once,  the  remainder  following  them  a  year 
later. 

The  Mormon  battalion  had  replaced  a  portion  of 
the  volunteers  enrolled  by  Fremont,  and  on  their  de- 
parture, the  1st  New  York  volunteer  regiment,  the 
formation  of  which  had  been  ordered  prior  to  the 
declaration  of  war,  was  ordered  to  the  coast.  It  was 


THE  FIRST  NEW  YORK  REGIMENT.  195 

recruited  entirely  from  the  industrial  classes,  and  with 
a  view  to  serve  as  a  nucleus  for  settlement  in  Califor- 
nia when  its  military  career  should  end.  The  com- 
panies were  mustered  into  service  on  August  1,  1846, 
and  presented  a  large  proportion  of  men  who  afterward 
attained  distinction,  although  with  a  considerable 
sprinkling  of  vagabonds.  Their  leader,  D.  Stevenson, 
was  a  colonel  of  militia,  ex-member  of  the  legislature, 
and  a  democratic  ward  politician.  The  men  sailed 
from  New  York  in  September,  and  arrived  at  San 
Francisco  in  March  1847,  thence  to  be  distributed  in 
garrisons,  Stevenson  being  appointed  commander  of 
the  southern  district.  Their  only  field  duties  were 
the  occasional  pursuit  of  Indian  cattle  raiders.  In 
August  1848,  they  were  disbanded,  the  number  of 
men  being  658,  and  of  officers  39,  about  460  having 
deserted  or  been  discharged,  and  one  fourth  of  the 
regiment  remaining  in  California. 

By  the  peace  treaty,  proclaimed  on  August  6,  1848, 
the  province  became  United  States  territory,  the 
Mexican  population  being  allowed  the  option  of  ac- 
cepting citizenship,  and  congress  was  called  upon  to 
provide  a  government.  This  requirement  brought  out 
the  real  object  of  the  democratic  or  war  party,  which 
was  to  outbalance  the  northern  section  of  the  union 
by  adding  slave  states  to  the  south.  The  first  call 
for  war  funds  had  been  conceded  by  the  north  only 
under  the  Wilmot  proviso  that  slavery  should  not  be 
permitted  in  any  acquired  territory.  At  the  second 
call,  early  in  1847,  the  proviso  was  not  insisted  upon, 
lest  it  should  excite  sectional  controversy  and  prolong 
the  war.  Now,  when  the  question  must  be  definitely 
settled,  on  the  formation  of  territorial  government, 
the  north  came  forward  determined  to  sustain  its  pur- 
pose. The  democrats  sought  to  carry  their  point  by 
offering  to  leave  the  decision  to  the  courts,  but  as 
these  were  favorable  to  the  south  it  was  rejected,  and 
no  organic  act  was  passed  during  that  session,  except 


196  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

for  Oregon,  which  lay  beyond    36°  of  latitude,  the 
limit  for  slavery,  according  to  a  late  compromise. 

During  the  next  session  both  parties  brought  in  a 
number  of  bills,  more  or  less  ingeniously  framed,  in 
order  to  win  over  the  less  stubborn  with  a  show  of 
concession.  One  proposed  the  admission  of  all  the 
conquered  region  as  a  state,  leaving  the  question  of 
slavery  to  the  inhabitants.  As  bondage  had  been 
forbidden  by  Mexican  constitutions,  the  democrats 
saw  herein  only  defeat,  and  the  bill  was  ousted,  chiefly 
on  the  ground  of  insufficient  population.  After  much 
manoeuvring,  a  bill  was  passed  extending  the  revenue 
laws  over  California,  the  southerners  expecting  some 
advantage  from  the  extension  of  the  constitution 

O 

thereby  implied. 

The  knot  was  cut  by  California  herself,  lifted  as 
she  was  to  self-asserting  power  by  the  gold  discovery, 
and  the  attendant  influx  of  population,  mainly  from 
the  north.  The  province  had  been  the  objective 
point  for  colonization  projects  on  the  part  of  several 
nations.  Spain  stepped  in  to  save  it  for  the  Musco- 
vites, and  Britons  and  the  Yankees  in  turn  interfered 
to  rescue  it  from  colonial  torpidity  under  Mexico,  or 
conservative  restrictions  under  a  possible  English 
domination,  or  even  from  an  invasion  by  Mormons, 
who  on  their  expulsion  from  the  inner  states  first 
turned  their  attention  to  this  shore.  Elder  Samuel 
Brannan  came,  indeed,  by  sea  with  an  advance  party 
of  238  persons,  together  with  implements  for  farmers 
and  mechanics,  and  other  useful  articles.  Fortu- 
nately for  all  concerned,  on  his  arrival,  in  July  1846, 
he  found  the  country  occupied  by  the  United  States 
forces.  Nevertheless,  he  resolved  to  form  a  settlement, 
and  half  of  his  people  remained,  the  rest  in  due  time 
joining  the  main  body,  which  had  already  sought 
refuge  in  Utah. 

The  gold  discovery  of  January  24,  1848,  of  course 
gave  a  startling  impetus  to  the  new  possessors  of 


THE  GOLD  DISCOVERY.  197 

California.  After  some  three  months  of  pardonable 
doubt,  the  full  reality  burst  upon  the  people,  and  a 
general  rush  set  in  for  the  gold  fields.  One  effect 
was  that  all  minds  were  so  preoccupied  as  to  remove 
any  lingering  fear  of  revolt ;  and  well  that  it  was  so, 
for  sailors  and  soldiers  joined  alike  in  the  rush,  leav- 
ing their  posts  comparatively  defenceless.  Farms 
were  abandoned  and  towns  deserted,  save  by  women 
and  children;  churches  were  closed  and  newspapers 
suspended.  Gold  was  the  one  cry  and  object.  The 
excitement  penetrated  to  adjoining  regions,  as  Oregon, 
Mexico,  and  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  brought  the 
same  year  several  thousands  to  swell  the  ranks,  and 
extend  the  mining  region  to  the  Tuolumne  on  one 
side  and  Feather  river  on  the  other.  Across  sea 
and  continent  sped  the  tidings,  and  being  sustained 
by  official  reports,  created  a  furor  such  as  the  world 
had  never  yet  beheld,  especially  on  the  western  sea- 
board of  Europe  and  the  Atlantic  slope  of  North 
America.  Men  of  all  classes  prepared  to  seek  a  land 
now  doubly  favored  by  fortune,  some  for  profit,  and 
some  for  novelty  and  adventure.  Ships  were  turned 
from  their  course  to  seek  the  rich  passenger  traffic ; 
manufacturing  establishments  abandoned  their  regular 
channels  to  provide  supplies,  in  food,  implements,  and 
comforts  for  the  new  and  more  profitable  markets. 
Trade,  industries,  society  were  thrown  out  of  course ; 
the  fever  raged  amid  household  and  community;  and 
the  peace  of  the  nations  was  profoundly  disturbed. 

Onward  the  human  current  flowed,  first  by  sea,  for 
winter  still  blocked  the  overland  route.  The  move- 
ment began  in  November,  and  for  February  1849 
three  score  vessels  were  announced  to  sail  from  New 
York  alone.  During  the  following  winter  250  ships 
departed  from  the  eastern  ports  of  the  United  States. 
Most  of  them  passed  round  Cape  Horn ;  others  poured 
their  living  cargoes  on  the  shores  of  the  Isthmus, 
leaving  them  to  find  their  way  northward  as  best  they 
could.  The  steamer  service  just  then  inaugurated 


198  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

gradually  absorbed  the  passenger  traffic,  which  for  a 
while  enriched  also  a  line  via  Nicaragua.  The  first 
steamer  entered  San  Francisco  February  28,  1849. 

The  overland  stream  set  in  in  April  1849,  chiefly 
from  the  old-time  migration  points  on  the  western 
border  of  the  Missouri  and  by  way  of  the  South 
pass,  Great  Salt  lake,  and  Humboldt  river.  The 
next  in  importance  passed  through  Santa  Fe  and 
Arizona.  For  the  sea  route  many  parties  had  been 
formed  for  mutual  aid  in  the  new  and  unknown  field. 
For  the  land  journey  this  became  indispensable  in 
order  to  move  and  protect  the  trains  of  huge  prairie 
wagons  along  an  often  difficult  route,  obstructed  by 
swamps  and  rivers,  steep  ridges  and  desert  plains, 
subject  to  storms  and  heat,  to  famine,  thirst,  and 
hardship,  and  the  raids  of  marauding  savages,  to 
which  many  a  party  fell  a  prey. 

Such  was  the  influx  which  raised  the  white  popu- 
lation of  California  from  12,000  in  the  summer  of  1848 
to  100,000  by  the  autumn  of  1849.  A  desirable  ad- 
dition it  was,  if  we  except  certain  elements  from 
Mexico  and  Australia,  for  the  distance  and  cost 
served  to  keep  back  the  lowest  classes,  as  did  the 
hardships  of  the  journey  and  mining  life  the  infirm 
and  indolent.  The  chosen  manhood  from  different 
classes  and  nationalities  came  there  to  occupy  the 
land,  in  fitting  accord  with  its  beauty,  resources,  and 
prospects.  It  was  a  cosmopolitan  gathering,  marked 
by  the  youthfulness  of  the  men  and  the  rarity  of 
women.  The  latter  awaited  a  more  advanced  condition 
before  venturing  amid  this  abnormal  society,  with  its 
extravagance,  and  feverish  exuberance,  and  helping  to 
transform  the  tented  camps,  with  their  drinking  orgies 
and  gambling  hells,  into  villages  and  towns  which  in 
time  became  the  centres  for  trade  and  manufactories 
and  agricultural  districts. 

The  immigration  thus  far  had  been  into  the  peace- 
ful valleys  of  the  coast  region  south  of  San  Francisco 
bay,  Now  it  poured  into  the  hitherto  almost  un- 


COLONEL  MASON'S  ADMINISTRATION.  199 

trodden  wilds  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin 
valleys,  lining  their  streams  with  camps  and  towns, 
and  drawing  in  their  wake  a  net-work  of  transports. 
Steamboats  ascended  the  rivers;  wagons  crossed  the 
valleys;  and  mule-trains  wound  their  way  up  the 
sierras,  the  prospector  toiling  on  in  advance  to  open 
new  fields  for  occupation.  As  mining  declined,  a  re- 
flux set  in  toward  the  scantily  occupied  coast  valleys 
on  both  sides  of  the  bay,  and  thence  back  again  into 
the  great  valleys,  this  time  with  plow  instead  of  pick. 
Commerce  prospered  throughout  these  changes,and 
prospective  metropolitan  cities  sprang  up,  especially 
round  the  central  bay,  on  which  nearly  all  the  valleys 
and  rivers  converged.  Benicia,  Vallejo,  and  others 
strove  in  vain  for  the  distinction;  it  remained  with 
the  city  at  the  gate,  which  rose  from  a  village  in 
1848  to  a  town  of  several  thousand  inhabitants  in 
1849.  Wharves  were  projected  to  meet  inflowing 
fleets;  hills  were  torn  down  and  thrown  in  behind 
them  to  transform  the  shallow  cove  into  business 
blocks,  while  dwellings  spread  around  over  the  ridges 
and  slopes.  In  the  interior  Stockton  obtained  the 
control  of  the  San  Joaquin  traffic,  and  Sacramento 
that  of  the  upper  valley,  while  a  host  of  minor  posts 
were  content  to  figure  as  tributaries. 

Colonel  Mason,  as  military  ruler,  was  the  embodi- 
ment of  fidelity  to  the  general  government,  and 
while  confining  himself  to  carrying  out  instructions 
and  avoiding  the  dangers  of  assumed  responsibility, 
he  did  very  well  under  the  anomalous  condition  of 
affairs.  He  could  not  stay  the  inroads  of  land-sharks 
on  the  estates  of  the  simple  natives  and  pioneers, 
but  during  his  administration  sensible  alcaldes  and 
mixed  juries  assisted  in  suppressing  crimes,  which 
subsequently  demanded  the  interposition  of  vigilance 
committees.  He  was  relieved  early  in  1849  and 
went  home,  only  to  succumb  to  cholera  in  the  same 
summer,  at  the  age  of  sixty. 


200  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

During  the  winter  of  1848-9  the  people  found  a 
little  time  to  devote  to  other  matters  than  gold. 
The  military  rule  at  once  struck  them  as  objection- 
able, and  the  appointment  of  General  P.  F.  Smith 
to  replace  Mason  as  military  commander  did  not 
improve  the  feeling.  Meetings  at  San  Francisco 
and  elsewhere  agreed  upon  a  convention  for  the 
summer  of  1849.  In  April,  however,  General  Ben- 
nett Biley  arrived  with  a  brigade  of  650  men,  bear- 
ing instructions  to  head  the  civil  government,  which 
was  then  supposed  to  be  already  in  existence. 
Finding  that  congress  had  neglected  to  grant  a 
government,  and  that  the  people  clamored  for  it,  he 
sensibly  proposed  to  form  a  temporary  one,  by  order- 
ing the  election  of  officers  on  August  1st,  to  serve 
until  the  close  of  the  year,  and  assist  in  a  vigorous 
enforcement  of  the  existing  laws,  so  far  as  they  did 
not  conflict  with  those  of  the  United  States. 

At  the  same  time  delegates  were  to  be  chosen  for 
a  convention  to  meet  in  September  at  Monterey  and 
frame  either  a  state  constitution  or  a  territorial  orga- 
nization, to  be  submitted  to  congress.  The  choice  of 
thirty-seven  delegates  as  first  apportioned  gave  a  de- 
cided preponderance  to  men  of  southern  sympathies, 
but  under  the  rapid  influx  of  gold-seekers  eleven 
more  were  admitted,  so  that  twenty-two  came  from 
northern  states,  fifteen  from  slave  states,  seven  were 
native  Californians,  and  four  foreign  born.  The 
southern  element  nevertheless  sought  to  obtain  the 
management,  under  the  guidance  of  W.  M.  Gwin  and 
T.  B.  King.  The  latter  was  confidential  agent  of  the 
government,  and  although  a  Pennsylvanian  by  birth 
he  had  represented  Georgia  in  congress  as  a  state 
rights  advocate.  Gwin  was  a  congressman  from 
Mississippi  who  had  come  to  the  coast  with  the  ex-' 
press  object  of  becoming  senator  for  California.  Made 
confident  by  their  growing  strength,  the  northerners 
stood  prepared  to  resent  any  dictation  from  the 
chivalry.  Gwin  was  ridiculed  out  of  his  pretensions 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  BOUNDARY  QUESTION, 

to  the  presidency  of  the  convention,  and  Temple,  the 
pioneer  editor,  a  man  of  gigantic  stature,  was  selected. 

A  great  struggle  was  expected  on  the  question  of 
slavery,  but  to  the  surprise  of  the  northerners  no  ob- 
jection was  raised  to  its  exclusion.  The  southerners 
had  gauged  the  temper  of  the  majority,  and  intent 
on  office  they  did  not  choose  to  provoke  it.  They 
hoped  to  gain  their  point  in  a  subsequent  division  of 
the  country  or  by  congressional  interference.  This 
they  accordingly  sought  to  facilitate  by  proposing  an 
extension  of  the  boundary  to  embrace  all  of  the  con- 
quered territory,  even  as  far  as  the  Texan  border. 
Again  northern  acumen  thwarted  them.  It  was  de- 
decided  to  adopt  the  lines  most  likely  to  meet  with 
approval,  so  as  not  to  defeat  the  admission  to  state- 
hood, to  which  the  fast-growing  population  aspired. 
The  present  boundary  was  therefore  adopted,  or 
nearly  so,  along  the  120th  meridian,  from  the  42d  to 
the  39th  parallel,  and  thence  to  the  Colorado  river. 
As  a  precautionary  compromise  a  proviso  was  added 
to  extend  the  boundary  as  far  as  New  Mexico,  if 
congress  should  object  to  the  line  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada. 

The  age  for  citizenship  was  placed  at  twenty-four 
years.  Indians  might  be  admitted  to  suffrage,  by  the 
legislature.  This  body  was  restricted  in  the  creation 
of  corporations  and  the  contracting  of  debts.  Taxes 
were  largely  left  to  loyal  decision  by  giving  to  coun- 
ties and  towns  the  election  of  assessors  and  boards  of 
supervisors.  Married  women  were  protected  in  their 
property ;  duels  were  forbidden.  The  secretary  of 
state  and  other  state  officers  were  appointed  by  the 
governor,  subject  to  legislative  consent.  The  consti- 
tution was  mainly  copied  from  those  of  New  York 
and  Iowa,  modified  by  the  heterogeneous  character  of 
the  convention,  and  its  defects  were  due  to  circum- 
stances rather  than  judgment.  It  was  completed  on 
the  13th  of  October,  1849,  and  adopted  almost  unani- 
mously on  November  13th,  The  officials  then  elected 


202  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

were  :  Peter  H.  Burnett,  governor ;  John  McDougal, 
lieutenant  governor ;  Edward  Gilbert,  and  G.  W. 
Wright,  congressmen.  On  December  12th  Governor 
Riley  proclaimed  the  constitution  as  established,  and 
on  the  20th  Burnett  was  installed  in  his  place,  with 
H.  W.  Halleck  for  secretary,  as  he  had  been  under 
preceding  administrations.  Other  appointments  were 
gradually  cancelled  as  the  state  government  came 
into  operation  in  all  branches.  Riley,  "  the  grim  old 
swearer,"  departed  the  following  summer,  bearing 
tangible  proofs  of  esteem  for  the  statesman-like  tact 
which  had  tempered  his  firm  military  dictatorship. 

Burnett  was  born  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  1807, 
and  passed  the  greater  portion  of  his  youth  on  the 
Missouri  border.  After  a  brief  experience  as  clerk 
in  a  store,  he  studied  law  and  became  an  editor,  but 
met  with  so  little  success  that  in  1843  he  migrated 
with  his  family  to  Oregon,  there  to  figure  as  farmer, 
lawyer,  legislator,  and  judge.  The  gold  discovery  in- 
duced him  to  seek  a  firmer  foundation  for  his  fortune 
in  California,  and  this  came  to  him  as  agent  from 
Sutter.  His  prestige  as  judge  of  the  supreme  court 
of  the  northern  state,  brought  him  additional  promi- 
nence at  a  time  when  the  country,  in  its  striving  for 
statehood,  eagerly  appreciated  such  experience.  Thus 
it  was  that  he  received  the  office  of  judge  of  the 
supreme  court,  which  he  resumed  in  1857-8,  and  then 
of  governor.  Later  he  became  president  of  the  Pa- 
cific bank  of  San  Francisco. 

The  first  legislature  consisted  of  sixteen  senators 
and  thirty-six  assemblymen.  A  few  displayed  the 
youthful  exuberance  of  the  mining  camps,  but  the 
greater  number  were  staid,  sensible,  and  energetic 
men,  above  the  sordid  considerations  and  political 
prostitution  which  stained  later  bodies.  The  appella- 
tion "  Legislature  of  a  Thousand  Drinks,"  was  due  to 
a  facetious  lobbyist  rather  than  to  any  marked  ex- 
cess. It  was  organized  on  December  17th,  with 


SEAT  OF  THE  CAPITOL.  203 

T.  J.  White  as  speaker  for  the  assembly  and  E.  Kirby 
Chamberlain  as  president  pro  tempore  of  the  senate. 

The  meeting  took  place  at  San  Jose,  which  had 
secured  the  privilege  from  the  convention  at  Mon- 
terey on  condition  of  providing  a  suitable  building, 
but  this  proved  to  be  of  such  poor  quality  that  the 
legislature  was  on  the  point  of  returning  to  the  old 
capital.  At  the  close  of  the  session  no  permanent 
capital  was  selected,  owing  to  the  rivalry  of  different 
towns  ;  and  thus  the  honor  was  hawked  about  for 
several  years.  Vallejo  made  so  brilliant  an  offer  on 
behalf  of  the  town  named  after  him,  that  the  second 
legislature  adopted  it  as  a  permanent  seat,  although 
so  dissatisfied  with  the  accommodation  that  it  moved 
back  to  San  Jose.  Its  successor  found  the  former 
town  so  dull  and  remote  that  a  change  was  made  to 
Sacramento.  The  legislature  of  1853  made  Beriicia 
the  seat,  but  in  the  following  year  the  law- makers 
once  more  had  recourse  to  Sacramento  The  judi- 
ciary now  interposed  in  behalf  of  San  Jose  as  the 
constitutional  .capital,  but  was  overruled,  and  Sacra- 
mento retained  the  position.  The  worst  feature  of 
these  changes  was  the  use  of  money  to  buy  votes  in 
each  case,  with  the  attendant  disregard  for  the  in- 
terests both  of  the  state  and  the  individuals  concerned. 

One  of  the  first  tasks  of  the  legislature  was  to  elect 
United  States  senators.  Fremont  received  the  high- 
est vote,  by  virtue  of  the  popularity  acquired  during 
the  conquest,  and  affirmed  during  his  trial.  Gwin, 
who  came  next,  had  the  advantage  over  his  com- 
petitors, especially  over  King,  being  an  abler,  cooler, 
and  more  crafty  man  than  any,  and  with  a  less  pro- 
nounced selfishness,  that  did  not  overlook  the  claims 
of  his  state  and  party.  His  pro-slavery  sentiments 
favored  him,  since  it  was  necessary  to  court  the 
southern  element  in  order  to  gain  admission  to  state- 
hood. Among  the  unsuccessful  candidates,  Secretary 
Halleck,  and  T.  J.  Henley,  secured  more  votes  than 
King. 


20-t  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

The  election  of  state  officers  made  S.  C.  Hastings 
chief  justice,  with  H.  A.  Lyons  and  Nathaniel  Ben- 
nett for  associates  ;  Richard  Roman  treasurer  ;  J0  S. 
Houston  comptroller ;  E.  J.  C.  Kewen  attorney-gen- 
eral, soon  succeeded  by  J.  A.  McDougall  ;  and  C.  A. 
Whiting  surveyor-general ;  and  later,  J.  G.  Marvin 
superintendent  of  public  instruction.  The  annual 
state  election  was  appointed  for  the  first  Monday  in 
October,  and  county  elections  for  the  first  Monday  of 
April,  in  1852,  and  every  second  year  thereafter. 

Nine  judicial  districts  were  created,  one  for  San 
Francisco,  three  for  the  coast  counties  south  of  the 
bay,  one  for  San  Joaquin  valley,  and  four  to  em- 
brace the  northern  half  of  the  state.  The  district 
courts  would  replace  the  courts  of  first  instance,  those 
of  the  second  and  third  instance  being  at  once  abol- 
ished. The  judges  were  elected  by  the  people  and 
commissioned  by  the  governor,  while  the  legislature 
chose  the  supreme  judges.  A  municipal  court  of  three 
superior  judges  was  assigned  to  the  metropolis.  Jus- 
tices of  the  peace  attended  to  minor  cases.  The  com- 
mon law  was  recommended  for  guidance  in  the  absence 
of  statutory  law.  The  state  was  divided  into  twenty- 
seven  counties,  and  county  seats  established,  except 
in  four  northern  sections,  which  were  attached  judi- 
cially to  Sonoma  and  Shasta  ;  and  in  a  few  cases  the 
selection  was  left  to  the  inhabitants. 

All  free  white  men  between  the  ages  of  eighteen 
and  forty- five  were  declared  subject  to  military  duty, 
except  such  as  had  served  in  the  army  or  navy,  or 
were  members  of  volunteer  companies.  The  militia 
and  independent  corps  were  organized  into  four  di- 
visions and  eight  brigades,  under  the  governor  as 
commander-in-chief,  who  might  appoint  two  aids-de- 
camp, with  the  rank  of  colonels  of  cavalry,  the  leg- 
islature electing  the  major  and  brigadier-generals,  one 
adjutant,  and  one  quartermaster-general.  All  per- 
sons liable  to  enrolment  and  not  members  of  any 
company  were  required  to  pay  two  dollars  annually 


TAXATION   AND  DEBT.  205 

into  the  county  treasury  for  a  military  fund,  which 
was  increased  by  the  exemption  tax  of  minors.  It 
was  applied  solely  to  that  department,  including  sal- 
aries of  officers  or  rather  of  the  adjutant  and  quarter- 
master-general, for  the  rest  were  compensated  by  rank 
alone.  In  1872  the  organized  uniformed  troops  wera 
converted  into  the  present  National  Guard,  consisting 
of  thirty-six  infantry,  six  cavalry,  and  two  artillery 
companies,  whose  pay,  when  in  service, was  the  same  as 
in  the  United  States  army.  The  sum  of  $300  was  an- 
nually allowed  for  expenses  to  each  company  of  over 
sixty  members ;  to  others  in  proportion. 

A  state  tax  was  imposed  of  fifty  cents  on  every 
$100  worth  of  assessed  property,  with  certain  ex 
ernptions  for  widows :  and  a  poll  tax  of  $5  on  every 
male  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one  and  fifty.  The 
expenses  of  county  governments  were  to  be  defrayed 
partly  from  licenses  for  every  kind  of  pursuit  save 
mining.  Meanwhile  the  empty  treasury  was  replen- 
ished by  a  loan  of  $200,000  for  a  term  not  exceeding 
twelve  years,  and  the  treasurer  was  authorized  to  is- 
sue bonds  for  an  amount  not  exceeding  $300,000,  at 
three  per  cent  per  month,  payable  in  six  months,  as  a 
temporary  accommodation.  Not  content  with  this, 
the  legislature  passed  an  act  authorizing  a  loan  in 
New  York  of  not  more  than  $1,000,000,  at  ten  per 
cent  per  annum,  redeemable  in  from  ten  to  twenty 
years. 

The  propensity  for  accumulating  debt  has  character- 
ized so  many  of  the  new  states  that  California,  with 
her  golden  prospects  of  wealth,  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  abstain,  especially  under  the  feeling  of  ex- 
uberance then  prevailing.  Circumstances  were  also 
partly  to  blame,  for  prices  were  exceedingly  high, 
and  consequently  expenses.  The  legislators  drew  $16 
per  diem,  with  extravagant  mileage,  and  the  pay  roll 
of  the  state  officers  exceeded  $100,000.  Yet  such 
were  the  inducements  to  members  to  look  after  their 
mining  and  other  interests  that  a  quorum  was  difficult 


206  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

to  obtain.  The  senate  was  compelled  at  one  time  to 
reduce  the  number  requisite  for  a  quorum  in  order 
not  to  obstruct  business.  Several  resignations  had  to 
be  accepted,  followed  by  new  elections.  Nevertheless 
the  first  legislature  did  its  work  with  commendable 
zeal. 

Northern  sentiments  predominated,  and  the  local 
southern  element,  being  as  desirous  as  the  rest  for  the 
admission  of  the  state,  did  not  feel  disposed  to  revive 
here  the  struggle  going  on  at  the  national  capital. 
Both  sides  united  in  condemning  congressional  oppo- 
sition to  the  pretensions  of  the  state  on  account  of 
the  slavery  question,  the  decision  of  which  should  be 
left  entirely  to  the  territory  concerned.  This  the 
democratic  or  pro-slavery  party  at  Washington  con- 
ceded as  a  principle,  but  resisted  its  application  when 
opposed  to  their  aims.  The  southerners  chose  to  lord 
it  over  the  northern  mudsills  in  congress,  assailing 
them  with  fiery  invectives,  and  declaring  every  com- 
promise or  equitable  allowance  a  pure  concession  by 
the  south. 

When  California  came  forward  in  earnest  for  ad- 
mission the  slavery  struggle  burst  forth  anew.  The 
southerners  had  entertained  hopes  that  circumstances 
might  favor  them  in  securing  that  region  for  their 
side,  notwithstanding  the  temporary  recognition  of 
the  Wilmot  proviso,  in  order  to  obtain  money  for  the 
war.  The  effect  of  the  gold  fever  in  bringing  a  pre- 
dominating northern  influx  was  an  unexpected  and  ir- 
remediable blow  to  their  plans.  The  ready  yielding 
of  their  agents  in  the  state  convention  and  legislature, 

O  O 

for  personal  motives,  was  another  disappointment. 
The  only  recourse  now  was  to  defer  the  triumph,  par- 
ticularly as  affecting  the  political  balance  in  congress. 
The  California  delegation  was  assiduously  courted 
by  the  northern  statesmen,  and  the  coldness  of  his 
own  party  toward  Gwin  strengthened  his  personal 
disposition  to  respond  to  the  others.  Clay  regarded 
the  aspect  as  sufficiently  serious  to  propose  a  corn- 


ADMISSION   TO   STATEHOOD.  20^ 

promise,  which  among  other  points,  renounced  the 
Wilmot  proviso  for  the  territories,  and  offered  to  pay 
the  early  debt  of  Texas.  During  the  long  discussion 
the  resolutions  were  altered  and  amended  beyond 
recognition,  yet  most  of  them  were  incorporated  in 
special  bills  and  passed,  constituting  in  effect  a  com- 
promise. The  way  thus  smoothed,  the  bill  for  admis- 
sion passed  the  senate  on  August  13th  by  a  vote  of 
34  to  18  The  democratic  side  numbered  32,  and 
among  these  several  rushed  forward  to  sustain  a  pro- 
test against  the  act  as  an  infringement  of  the  consti- 

O  O 

tution,  violating  the  rights  of  the  south,  and  endan- 
gering liberty  and  equality.  California  should  have 
been  fairly  divided  between  the  free  and  slave  states. 
Such  was  the  feeling  which  in  due  time  culminated 

O 

in  a  war  of  secession,  and  for  which  California  was 
one  of  the  innocent  causes.  Notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  opponents  the  house  likewise  passed  the 
bill  on  September  7th,  bj  a  vote  of  150  to  56.  It 
was  approved  on  the  9th,  and  two  days  later  the  Cal- 
ifornia delegation  presented  itself,  in  face  of  the  last 
ineffectual  remonstrances  of  the  south.  The  long  de- 
lay had  created  no  little  anger  in  the  state.  Officials 
joined  in  expressing  disapproval,  and  even  revolution- 
ary sentiments  were  freely  uttered,  in  favor  of  sepa- 
ration and  independence.  Although  nothing  serious 
was  likely  to  happen,  a  general  feeling  of  relief  as 
well  as  joy  greeted  the  arrival  of  the  good  news. 

During  the  congressional  discussion  of  California's 
fate,  party  leaders  in  the  state  sought  to  make  clearer 
the  line  between  whigs  and  democrats,  by  agitating 
the  points  at  issue  and  calling  for  a  rally.  In  San 
Francisco  indeed  the  democrats  gained  the  control, 
together  with  the  independents,  while  the  whigs  had 
the  upper  hand  in  Sacramento.  The  reason  was  the 
dependence  of  the  latter  place  on  the  mines,  where 
northerners  preponderated.  The  northern  counties 
were  so  superior  numerically  that  they  could  readily 


208  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

determine  political  action,  yet  the  miners  were  more 
interested  in  legislation  on  mining,  and  prepared  to 
make  this  an  issue  rather  than  a  party  question,  so 
that  with  a  proper  consideration  for  this  demand  even 
a  pronounced  southerner  might  acquire  a  large  support 
among  the  classes  with  whig  sympathies. 

The  election  of  October  7,  1850,  brought  to  the 
legislature  27  democrats  and  8  independents  against 
18  whigs.  The  following  year  saw  the  apportion- 
ment increased  to  62  members  in  the  assembly  and 
27  in  the  senate,  only  one  whig  being  added  to  the 
latter  body.  The  call  to  elect  a  senator  to  succeed 
Fremont  brought  forth  the  strength  of  the  anti-free- 
soil  party.  Fremont  fell  out  of  the  race,  partly  from 
having  attended  so  little  to  the  duties  of  his  position, 
but  neither  side  could  secure  the  needful  votes  for 
any  other  candidate.  One  reason  was  the  broadening 
distinction  between  northern  and  pro-slavery  demo- 
crats, animated  by  somewhat  different  interests.  The 
place  remained  vacant  till  1862,  when  the  choice,  after 
a  struggle,  fell  on  John  B.  Weller,  a  protege  of  the 
Gwin  faction. 

Although  a  native  of  Ohio,  where  he  had  held 
positions  of  honor,  Weller  was  a  pro-slavery  man. 
As  colonel  of  a  regiment  during  the  Mexican  war,  he 
obtained  from  his  general,  when  chosen  president, 
the  appointment  of  Mexican  boundary  commissioner. 
The  admission  of  the  state  prompted  him  to  turn  to 
politics,  with  a  view  to  the  prize  which  he  now  gained. 
He  studied  the  interests  of  his  party  so  well  as  to 
receive  subsequently  the  gubernatorial  office. 

By  this  time  the  democrats  had  fortified  themselves 
by  careful  organization.  Their  first  state  convention 
had  met  in  May  1851,  with  176  delegates.  It  was 
planned  and  directed  by  Gwin,  whose  hand  was 
everywhere  visible.  He  joined  in  an  attack  upon  the 
whig  administration  at  Washington,  whose  hostility 
to  California  was  shown  in  the  scantiness  of  the 
favors  wrung  from  it  by  the  redoubtable  senator ;  and 


BURNETT  AND  McDOUGAL.  209 

he  roused  the  miners  in  particular  by  pointing  to  the 
heavy  drain  on  their  earnings  through  the  neglect  to 
establish  a  local  mint. 

The  whigs  were  not  backward  in  mustering,  but 
their  delegates  numbered  only  100,  seven  counties 
being  unrepresented.  They  appealed  to  the  mining 
class  by  proposing  that  mineral  lands  should  be  held 
by  the  government  for  their  benefit,  to  be  worked 
free  of  taxes ;  and  that  the  land  should  be  given  the 
immediate  benefit  of  preemption  laws.  Other  meas- 
ures were  suggested,  but  like  the  democrats  they 
carefully  abstained  from  alluding  to  local  corruption 
and  reform,  as  if  afraid  to  attract  the  enmity  of  the 
class  which  was  then  rousing  the  ire  of  the  vigilance 
committee. 

The  independents,  or  true  California  party,  lacked 
cohesion  and  did  not  attempt  to  form  a  ticket,  pre- 
ferring to  cast  its  influence  on  the  side  which  prom- 
ised best  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  state,  and  to 
let  its  organs  wield  a  censorship  over  the  other  par- 
ties. Unfortunately  for  the  whigs  their  preference 
for  them  tended  only  to  create  a  split,  and  so  further 
the  aims  of  the  more  disciplined  and  unit-loving  demo- 
crats, who  indeed  retained  the  supremacy  throughout 
the  fifties. 

The  whigs  had  been  unfortunate  also  in  neglecting 
the  southern  half  of  tho  state  in  their  nominations, 
for  a  similar  disregard  by  the  other  party  left  here  an 
advantage  to  their  opponents.  The  democrats  had 
been  more  calculating  than  careless  in  this  respect. 
They  still  aspired  to  form  a  slave  state  by  dividing 
California,  and  to  this  end  they  preferred  to  rouse 
discontent  in  that  section.  By  neglecting  to  assign 
congressional  districts,  the  legislature  allowed  the 
congressmen,  McCorkle  and  Marshall,  to  be  elected  at 
large,  thus  inflicting  another  slight  on  the  south. 

Governor  Burnett  was  a  suave,  correct  man,  who 
impressed  people  with  his  judicial  air,  while  readily 

C.  B.— II.     I; 


210  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

accommodating  himself  to  circumstances  and  opinions, 
thus  avoiding  serious  errors,  if  not  aspiring  to  high 
achievements.  He  was  too  slow  and  conservative, 
however,  for  the  time,  and  when,  in  consequence  of 
conversion  to  the  catholic  faith  and  the  pressure  of 
private  business,  he  resigned  his  office  in  1851,  there 
was  no  very  pronounced  expression  of  regret.  Never- 
theless he  was  a  loss  to  the  state,  for  his  successor, 
whatever  may  have  been  his  merits  or  demerits,  shed 
no  special  lustre  over  the  rising  star  of  Califor- 
nia. Like  Weller,  John  McDou^al  was  a  native  of 

O 

Ohio,  and  had  figured  in  official  capacity  in  Indiana, 
and  served  in  Indian  fights  as  well  as  in  the  Mexican 
war.  His  brilliant  social  talents,  fine  appearance, 
and  genial  qualities  won  for  him  a  leading  position 
among  democrats,  which  lifted  him  to  office,  and  sub- 
sequently secured  his  election  to  the  United  States 
senate.  His  greatest  failing  was  a  too  strict  devotion 
to  party. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1852,  John  Bigler  was  in- 
stalled as  governor.  At  this  date  the  squatters  were 
powerful,  and  Bigler,  whose  struggles  with  fortune  in 
various  humble  capacities  had  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  their  class,  and  whose  neighborly  disposi- 
tion had  won  their  appreciation,  courted  them  with 
such  success  as  to  gain  a  small  majority  over  his 
opponent  Reading,  the  choice  of  the  more  aristocratic 
chivalry.  He  was  also  a  good-natured  man,  so  much 
so  as  readily  to  lend  himself  to  corruption,  despite 
frequent  expostulations  with  a  legislature  that  squan- 
dered the  resources  of  the  state.  The  whigs  saw 
herein  a  chance  for  supplanting  him  at  the  following 
election  by  nominating  W.  Waldo,  who  was  esteemed 
no  less  for  his  pure  principles  and  firmness,  than  for 
liberal  and  philanthropic  views.  But  the  democrats 
had  special  reasons  for  rallying  to  the  support  of  its 
office-holders.  Their  plans  for  speculation  had  ma- 
tured and  the  fruit  must  be  left  for  others  to  gather. 
One  of  the  main  prizes  was  the  water-lot  property  of 


JOHN  BIGLER.  211 

San  Francsico,  from  which  Bigler's  adherents  ex- 
pected to  gain  $4,000,000.  They  could  afford,  there- 
fore, to  spend  money  in  buying  votes,  and  in  stuffing 
ballot-boxes.  At  San  Francisco  alone  $1,500,000 
were  distributed,  so  that  this,  the  centre  of  the  whigs, 
actually  gave  a  majority  for  its  proposed  spoliation, 
allowing  him  to  retain  the  gubernatorial  seat  for  a 
second  term.  The  water-lot  bill  was  defeated  how- 
ever, owing  to  the  vigilance  of  the  city  representatives. 
In  1852  took  place  the  first  presidential  election  in 
California.  Both  factions  strained  every  effort  in 
order  to  gain  standing  with  the  national  party.  The 
whigs  were  defeated,  and  the  democrats  claimed  no 
little  credit  with  the  victorious  administration  for 
having  secured  a  majority  for  Pierce  out  of  the  total 
vote  of  71,189.  The  distribution  of  patronage,  how- 
ever, caused  no  little  contention,  involving  as  it  did 
the  entire  list  of  federal  offices.  The  chief  prize,  the 
collectorship  of  customs,  was  tendered  to  R.  P. 
Hammond,  a  retired  army  man  residing  in  the  state. 
M.  S.  Latham  and  J.  A.  McDougall  were  sent  to 


congress. 


Finding  themselves  thus  strengthened  the  demo- 
crats renewed  their  efforts  for  the  division  of  the 
state,  by  proposing  a  new  constitution.  A  number 
of  disaffected  whigs  promoted  the  scheme  with  a 
view  to  gain  votes  from  the  main  party.  The  meas- 
ure was  tried  again  in  1856—7,  but  received  so  meagre 
a  vote  that  it  could  not  be  acted  upon. 

Meanwhile  the  southerners  tried  to  obtain  permis- 
sion for  their  immigrants  to  bring  slaves  into  the 
country,  several  being  introduced  in  anticipation;  but 
public  sentiment  had  turned  against  the  admission  of 
inferior  races,  whether  foreigners  or  natives.  It  had 
asserted  itself  not  alone  against  Australian  convicts 
and  proposed  coolie  or  contract  labor,  but  most  un- 
justly against  local  Spanish- Americans.  Now  it  op- 
posed also  the  entry  of  negro  slaves.  So  sweeping 
were  the  views  of  many  northerners  in  this  regard 


212  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

that  they  were  in  1852  prevailed  on  to  pass  the  fugi- 
tive act,  under  which  even  free  negroes  were  liable  to 
be  seized  and  reenslaved.  Fortunately  the  judges 
were  merciful,  and  most  negroes  so  arrested  were 
released.  After  several  extensions  the  law  was 
allowed  to  lapse  in  1858.  The  habit  of  kidnapping 
Indians  for  forced  servitude  was  likewise  frowned  down. 

A  fearlesss  opponent  of  such  oppressive  enact- 
ments, and  of  the  high-handed  chivalry  had  risen  in 
the  person  of  David  Colbert  Broderick,  born  at  Kil- 
kenny, Ireland,  in  1820,  but  brought  at  an  early  age 
to  the  United  States  by  his  father,  a  stone-cutter, 
whose  trade  he  followed.  At  New  York  he  fell  in 
with  the  rough,  muscular  element,  and  became  a 
leader  among  firemen,  with  their  political  predilec- 
tions. His  inherent  magnetism  and  capacity  for  or- 
ganization soon  revealed  themselves,  and  roused  his 
ambition  to  display  them  in  higher  circles.  He 
opened  a  dram-shop  in  order  to  gain  time  for  study 
in  the  branches  of  learning  necessary  for  advancement, 
and  opportunity  for  winning  adherents.  With  their 
aid  he  stepped  into  the  custom-house,  and  then  posed 
for  congress.  The  commendable  desire  to  form 
loftier  principles  for  conduct  than  were  prevalent 
among  his  associates  lost  him  a  considerable  following, 
and  he  was  defeated. 

Dejected  and  penniless,  he  sought  California  in 
1849,  and  with  somewhat  retrieved  fortune,  made  his 
bow  before  the  representatives  of  New  York  democ- 
racy at  San  Francisco.  The  next  year  he  entered  the 
state  senate.  His  prestige  as  a  trained  politician, 
who  had  presided  over  conventions  and  directed  polit- 
ical campaigns  at  the  east,  raised  him  to  the  presi- 
dency of  the  body.  He  studied  law  to  acquire  skill 
for  the  position,  and  filled  it  ably.  Notwithstanding 
his  association  with  the  base,  his  own  deportment  was 
most  exemplary.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  convic- 
tions, with  loves  and  hates  intense ;  with  womanly 
sensibilities  held  in  control  by  a  powerful  will ;  and  a 


DAVID  C.  BRODERICK.  213 

reserve  tinged  with  melancholy — a  man  who  rarely 
smiled. 

His  ambition  now  aspired  to  a  senatorship,  and  to 
this  end  he  fitted  every  political  act.  The  pro-slavery 
democrats  under  Gwin  objected  to  him  as  a  presump- 
tuous northern  plebeian,  with  anti -slavery  principles. 
Broderick's  attitude  in  consequence  tended  to  make 
clearer  the  distinction  between  northern  and  southern 
democrats,  notwithstanding  the  strong  unity  of  ideas 
in  the  party.  This  was  affirmed  by  the  contention 
for  spoil  at  the  change  of  the  administration,  for 
Gwin's  side  favored  only  the  south,  preferring,  indeed, 
a  whig  from  that  quarter  to  an  anti-slavery  democrat. 

Gwin  had  displayed  admirable  tact.  As  a  demo- 
crat in  a  democratic  senate  he  had  wielded  a  strong 
influence  over  the  acts  arid  appointments  of  the  whig 
administration,  and  still  greater  was  his  power  under 
the  new  regime,  while  in  California  he  had  been  the 
head  of  the  democratic  party,  a  position  only  now  to 
be  disputed.  He  had  performed  marked  services  for 
the  state,  in  promoting  enactments  and  appropriations, 
and  his  efforts  were  widely  appreciated;  but  he  had 
not  neglected  his  own  interests,  as  shown  in  many 
momentary  schemes,  such  as  the  purchase  of  Moffatt's 
assay  office  for  a  mint,  at  an  extravagant  price. 

The  end  of  his  term  approaching,  Broderick  strove 
to  secure  his  seat  for  himself;  first,  by  a  futile  propo- 
sal for  a  nomination  in  advance  of  the  regular  time, 
when  more  friends  could  be  mustered  ;  secondly,  by 
packing  the  state  convention  with  his  adherents. 
Here  also  he  was  foiled  by  the  activity  of  Gwin's 
men,  who,  with  a  more  complete  organization,  carried 
the  election  of  the  two  congressmen,  J.  W.  Denon, 
later  governor  of  Kansas,  and  V.  T.  Herbert  of  un- 
savory fame,  and  a  majority  for  the  legislature,  so 
much  so  that  a  joint  convention  gave  them  43 
members,  known  as  anti-electionists  or  bolters,  while 
the  electionists  or  Broderick  men  numbered  only  28, 
the  whigs  having  42.  The  senatorial  contest  could 


2H  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

not  therefore  be  won  by  Broderick,  but  he  managed 
to  humiliate  his  opponents  by  withholding  the  tri- 
umph from  them  and  gaining  time  for  himself. 

Turning  his  attention  once  more  to  the  state  con- 
ventions, lie  secured  the  control  and  the  nominations. 
The  reason  for  this  success  lay  in  the  formation  of 
a  new  party.  A  proportion  of  discontented  whigs 
and  democrats  in  the  United  States  had  agreed  to 
form  a  new  affiliation,  aiming  to  unite  the  north  and 
south,  one  of  their  main  principles  being  a  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  compromise,  restricting  slavery  north  of 
36°  30'  latitude,  on  the  ground  that  the  north  was  un- 
justly encouraging  an  immigration  of  low  foreigners, 
and  surrendering  to  them  land  belonging  equally  to 
the  south.  This  American  or  know-nothing  party 
found  many  adherents  in  California,  on  the  additional 
grounds  that  foreigners  were  carrying  away  the  gold 
of  the  coast,  and  bringing  in  a  low  race-competition 
with  labor.  The  democrats  embraced  a  large  number 
of  Irish  and  Germans,  who  felt  insulted  by  the  pro- 
posed restriction,  and  another  section  which  had  been 
disappointed  by  the  absorption  of  patronage  by  south- 
erners. Both  of  these  classes  Broderick  won  to  his 
standard.  In  despair  over  the  wide  defection,  Gwin 
joined  forces  with  the  know-nothings,  and  helped  them 
to  elect  J.  Neely  Johnson  for  governor  by  a  vote  of 
51,157  against  the  Broderick  vote  of  46,220  for  Big- 
ler.  Johnson  was  a  lawyer  from  southern  Indiana, 
who  had  served  as  city  and  district  attorney.  Subse- 
quently he  sat  on  the  supreme  bench  in  Nevada. 
Bigler  resumed  the  practice  of  law,  and  served  a  few 
years  later  as  minister  to  Chili,  railway  commissioner, 
and  collector.  He  died  at  Sacramento  in  1871. 

The  know-nothings  were  forced  to  carry  out  some 
of  their  promised  reforms  under  the  significant  ad- 
monitions of  the  vigilance  committee,  which  in  1856 
rose  a  second  time  to  purify  in  particular  a  corrupt 
local  administration,  and  to  sustain  the  improvement 
by  the  formation  of  a  people's  party  at  the  metropo- 


WILLIAM  M.  GWIN.  215 

lis.  Their  strength  was  wholly  fictitious;  for  no 
sooner  did  the  old  parties  offer  substantial  inducements 
than  large  numbers  returned  to  their  allegiance.  The 
final  blow  to  the  ephemeral  coalition  was  given  by  the 
formation  of  the  republican  party,  which  appeared 
during  this  year  in  the  presidential  contest  with  Fre- 
mont as  a  figure-head,  while  the  know-nothings  and 
whigs  rallied  round  Fillmore,  and  the  reunited  demo- 
crats round  Buchanan.  Fremont's  popularity  had 
here  been  undermined  by  his  contracts  and  other  sus- 
picious transactions,  and  the  republican  organization 
was  too  recent  to  inspire  confidence.  California,  ac- 
cordingly, gave  nearly  one  half  of  her  votes  to  swell 
the  democratic  triumph,  both  in  state  and  federal 
circles. 

The  success  was  greatly  due  to  Broderick's  control 
of  the  convention,  and  its  nominations,  whereby  he 
hoped  to  gain  credit  with  the  federal  authorities,  and 
a  sufficient  majority  in  the  legislature  to  assure  his 
own  election  to  the  senate.  It  so  happened  that 
Weller's  term  was  about  to  expire,  and  as  this  would 
be  the  longer  one,  Gwin's  place  having  now  been 
vacant  for  some  time,  Broderick  proposed  to  secure 
it,  first,  by  prevailing  on  the  legislature  in  caucus  to 
fill  this  seat  irregularly  in  advance  of  the  other ;  sec- 
ondly, by  bargaining  for  additional  support  among 
other  candidates,  notably  Latham  and  Gwin,  with 
the  intimation  to  each  that  he  should  be  the  choice 
for  colleague.  Both  manoeuvres  succeeded,  and 
Broderick  obtained  Weller's  seat. 

Thus  secure,  he  resolved  to  extort  further  advan- 
tages for  himself  from  the  candidates  for  the  short 
term,  and  on  Gwin  offering  to  surrender  all  patronage, 
he  threw  over  Latham.  Broderick  thought  it  better 
for  himself  to  side  with  a  man  who  was  popular  both 
with  the  federal  administration  and  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia. As  for  the  price  demanded,  he  considered  it 
only  fair  that  northern  men  should  taste  the  sweets 
of  office  so  long  reserved  for  the  south,  He  had  mis- 


216  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA, 

calculated  his  strength,  however,  for,  on  arriving  at 
Washington,  he  was  scowled  upon  as  an  interloper 
who  had  abused  a  momentary  hold  on  the  chivalrous 
Gwin.  His  recommendations  to  office  w^ere  almost 
wholly  ignored,  and  Gwin's  advice  governed  the  lead- 
ing and  most  numerous  appointments. 

Broderick  returned  to  California  in  1858,  deeply 
mortified,  but  with  the  hope  that  his  influence  would 
make  itself  felt  in  the  nomination  for  the  governorship. 
But  his  discomfirture  at  the  capital,  notably  in  failing 
to  procure  the  expected  rewards  for  his  supporters,  and 
his  double-dealing  in  securing  the  senatorship,  had 
roused  so  many  foes,  that  he  thought  it  prudent  to 
hold  aloof.  His  opponent,  Weller,  who  had  returned 
amid  ovations,  received  the  governorship.  With  addi- 
tional motives  for  disgust,  Broderick  was  no\v  brooding 
over  schemes  for  retaliation.  The  occasion  presented 
itself  in  the  question  of  admitting  slavery  into  the  terri- 
tories, leaving  it  to  states  to  decide  on  its  retention. 
It  centered  in  Kansas,  where  the  federal  government 
had  aided  in  the  persecution  of  free-soil  men.  In  the 
United  States  senate  Douglas  was  the  only  member 
who  rose  in  opposition  to  slavery.  By  his  side  Brod- 
erick ranged  himself,  the  champion  of  labor,  eager  to 
attack  the  ranks  of  his  foes,  notwithstanding  his 
instructions  from  the  legislature  to  take  another 
course.  Unfortunatelv  for  himself  he  had  no  ora- 

t/ 

torial  tact.  In  denouncing  the  president,  Lecomp- 
tonites,  and  the  slavery  party,  he  did  so  in  blunt  and 
caustic  terms,  which  laid  him  open  to  the  charge  of 
coarseness,  and  seriously  injured  the  cause. 

Condemned  by  the  legislature,  Broderick  hastened 
back  to  organize  the  anti-Lecompton  wing  of  the 
democratic  party,  and  fuse  with  the  republicans  on 
Mc'Kibben  for  congressman.  He  saw  no  other  way 
of  sustaining  the  lofty  cause  which  he  had  undertaken. 
Gwin  and  he  came  frequently  in  collision  during  the 
campaign,  and  both  his  policy  and  taunts  so  provoked 
the  chivalry  that  they  resolved  upon  removing  a  man 


MILTON   S.    LATHAM.  217 

so  dangerous  to  their  cause.  They  triumphed  at  the 
election,  and  M.  S,  Latham,  who  had  been  so  ill-used 
by  Broderick,  was  elected  governor. 

On  the  very  next  day,  Terry,  as  judge  of  the  su^ 
preme  court,  resigned  his  seat  to  take  up  the  blud- 
geon on  behalf  of  his  party,  and  fight  the  senator. 
Broderick  had  himself  given  occasion  for  the  chal- 
lenge, and  his  friends  expected  him  to  offer  a  bold 
front.  Yet  he  had  a  mournful  presentiment  of  being- 
destined  for  sacrifice,  by  some  other  hand  if  he  es- 
caped from  Terry's.  They  met  on  September  13, 
1859.  Broderick  fell.  "They  have  killed  me  because 
I  was  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  a  cor- 
rupt administration,"  were  his  dying  words,  which 
sent  a  thrill  through  the  hearts  of  all  true  men. 

Milton  S.  Latham  was  a  lawyer,  born  in  Ohio,  of 
New  England  stock,  but  educated  in  Alabama  and 
there  impressed  with  democratic  ideas.  He  arrived 
in  California  in  1850.  A  few  months  later,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-two,  he  was  sent  to  congress,  and  there 
exerted  himself  so  effectually  during  his  term  of  office 
as  to  receive  the  collectorship  of  San  Francisco  in 
1856.  He  stood  pledged  to  this  city  to  oppose  the 
obnoxious  bulk-head  bill,  which  proposed  to  grant  to 
a  monopoly  the  extreme  water-front  for  fifty  years. 
This  not  suiting  an  interested  clique  in  the  legisla- 
ture, he  was  elected  the  successor  of  Broderick  the 
day  after  his  inaugural,  and  so  sent  out  of  the  way. 
The  lieutenant-governor,  J.  G.  Downey,  then  took 
the  executive  chair. 

Latham  entered  the  senate  to  share  in  the  most 
momentous  of  congressional  struggles,  and  California 
herself  became  the  scene  for  strife  between  the  fac- 
tions of  the  two  great  parties.  The  relations  between 
the  northern  and  southern  states  were  approaching  a 
crisis.  The  former  were  determined  to  take  a  stand 
against  the  growing  pretensions  and  insolence  of  the 
slavery  party,  and  the  latter  declared  that  the  elec- 


218  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

tion  of  a  republican  president  would  be  ground  for 
secession.  Upon  this  then  hinged  the  issue.  The 
Lecomptonites,  who  aimed  to  carry  slavery  into  the 
territories,  and  so  degrade  or  drive  out  white  labor, 
facilitating  their  retention  as  slave  states,  nominated 
for  their  candidate  J.  C.  Breckenridge  of  Kentucky, 
while  the  anti-Lecomptonites  chose  for  standard-bearer 
S.  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois,  the  sole  associate  of  Brod- 
erick  in  the  senate,  with  the  principle  that  slavery  in 
any  territory  was  to  be  optional  with  the  people,  not 
with  congress.  Gwin  and  Latham,  although  at  vari- 
ance, decided  for  the  former,  and  persuaded  the  entire 
democratic  delegation  to  join  them,  despite  instruc- 
tions. Gwin  hinted  at  a  Pacific  republic  bounded  by 
the  Rocky  mountains,  and  declared  that  in  case  of 
secession  California  would  side  with  the  south. 

The  legislature  had  indeed  given  no  meagre  cause 
for  the  assertion,  bypassing  in  1859  an  act  permitting 
the  southern  counties  below  the  36th  parallel  to  vote 
on  a  division  of  the  state.  The  result  was  a  two- 
thirds  vote  for  division,  chiefly  on  the  ground  of  un- 
equal taxation,  which  favored  the  mines  at  the  ex- 
pense of  this  agricultural  section. '  The  legislature  of 
1860  reconsidered  the  subject,  and  urged  its  repre- 
sentatives to  oppose  its  execution  in  congress.  A 
minority  report  here  pointed  out  the  unconstitution- 
ally of  the  act,  supported  by  only  a  portion  of  the 
state,  and  as  state  rights  seriously  concerned  the 
party  in  power  at  the  time,  the  report  had  to  be 
needed,  although  with  bad  grace. 

The  north  had  also  split  on  the  great  issue.  The 
whigs  had  mostly  been  transformed  into  republicans, 
whose  northern  and  union  principles  were  gaining 
wide  attention.  The  American  party  still  lingered, 
however,  although  now  denominated  the  constitutional 
union.  It  nominated  John  Bell  of  Tennessee  as  a 
compromise  candidate,  while  the  others  came  out 
boldly  for  a  stanch  northerner.  Seward,  as  the  fore- 
most republican  leader,  was  generally  expected  to  ob- 


REPUBLICAN  VICTORY.  219 

tain  the  nomination,  but  as  frequently  has  happened 
the  more  prominent  the  figure  the  greater  the  faction 
jealousy,  and  so  by  a  fortunate  accident  the  choice 
fell  on  one  little  known,  Abraham  Lincoln  of  Illinois. 
The  republicans  of  California  were  largely  com- 
posed of  young  men,  eager  for  fresh  issues  and  the 
advancement  of  the  state.  The  newness  of  the  party 
prompted  an  attitude  and  platform  that  should  win 
adherents,  and  such  was  its  success  that  it  assisted 
in  bringing  in  a  plurality  for  Lincoln  over  Douglas  of 
700  votes,  the  latter  surpassing  Breckenridge  by 
3,000.  Thus  was  overthrown  the  exultant  chivalry, 
which  within  one  year  turned  a  majority  of  nearly 
21,000  into  a  defeat. 

The  double  revulsion  against  the  Lecomptonites 
arose  partly  from  the  disinclination  to  be  drawn  into 
the  quarrel  between  the  north  and  south,  partly  from 
the  neglect  of  the  congressional  representatives.  Not 
a  little  was  due  to  the  murder  of  Broderick,  whose 
course  in  the  east,  once  condemned,  was  now  formally 
upheld  by  special  resolution  on  the  part  of  a  legisla- 
ture which,  although  still  very  largely  democratic, 
leaned  strongly  to  the  Douglas  side.  It  stood  bound 
against  any  bills  favoring  bulk-head  and  state  divis- 
ion schemes,  and  did  its  duty,  submitting  instead 
several  amendments  to  the  constitution,  for  biennial 
legislative  sessions,  for  a  gubernatorial  term  of  four 
years,  and  a  change  in  the  judiciary  system,  which 
were  adopted. 

Gwin  being  politically  dead  to  California,  the 
Douglas  democrats,  supported  by  the  republicans., 
chose  for  his  successor,  James  A.  McDougall,  a  tal- 
ented but  dissipated  lawyer  from  New  York,  who 
had  figured  as  attorney-general  in  Illinois  and  Cali- 
fornia, and  latterly  as  congressman.  So  half-hearted 
was  his  support  of  the  administration  that  he  was 
repudiated.  Latham  drifted  gradually  into  pronounced 
slavery  ideas. 

In  California  the  popular  sentiment  for  the  union 


220  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

was  becoming  so  expressed  that  the  legislature  con- 
sidered it  a  duty  to  formally  avow  its  loyalty  in  order 
not  to  encourage  secessionists  with  a  Pacific  republic 
idea.  Moreover,  California's  present  great  object 
was  railway  connection  with  the  east,  and  other  in- 
terests tending  to  pledge  her  to  the  union.  The 
north  responded  with  great  promptness  by  giving 
a  daily  mail,  by  promoting  the  completion  of  tele- 
graph connection  in  October,  1861,  and  by  push- 
ing the  all-important  railway,  and  so  confirmed  the 
fidelity  of  the  people.  Republican  associations  adopted 
the  term,  administration  union  clubs,  press,  and  pulpit 
lent  their  aid,  and  corporations  and  individuals  mani- 
fested their  disposition  by  a  wide  display  of  union 
flag's,  which  alone  were  tolerated.  The  militia  was 

O      ' 

organized  in  six  divisions  and  twelve  brigades,  with 
provisions  for  equipment  and  calling  into  service. 
To  every  demand  for  troops  California  responded  so 
freely  with  volunteers  that  no  levy  was  ever  required. 
A  special  tax  was  levied  to  pay  extra  bounty  to  recruits 
and  remuneration  to  volunteers,  and  for  this  and  other 
purposes,  such  as  encampments,  debt  was  increased 
to  more  than  $5,300,000.  The  direct  federal  tax  of 
$254,500,  apportioned  to  the  state,  was  paid  at  once 
in  advance  of  time.  The  contribution  to  the  sanitary 
commission  from  California  alone  was  more  than  $1,- 
200,000,  a  sum  largely  in  excess  of  contributions  from 
other  quarters;  and  official  steps  were  taken  to  sup- 
press all  disloyal  utterances  and  acts,  especially  in 
the  southern  counties,  where  volunteers  were  sta- 
tioned for  the  purpose.  Passports  were  required  to 
check  emigration  to  Texas. 

These  measures  were  ably  supported,  first  by  Gen- 
eral E.  A.  Sumner,  who  had  been  sent  in  all  haste  to 
replace  General  A.  S.  Johnston  in  command  of  the 
military  department.  The  change  was  opportune, 
for  Johnston  hastened  away  to  join  the  rebels  and  lay 
down  his  life  at  Shiloh  for  the  "lost  cause."  Sum- 
ner's  prompt  and  decisive  action  was  formally  declared 


STANFORD,  LOW,  CONNESS.  221 

by  the  legislature  to  have  saved  the  state  from  civil 
war.  He  was  early  succeeded  by  Colonel  G.  Wright 
and  he  by  General  McDowell,  who  were  no  less 
zealous. 

The  only  act  of  the  state  which  did  not  wholly  re- 
spond to  the  call  of  patriotism  was  the  refusal  to  re- 
ceive depreciated  paper  money  as  legal  tender,  for  the 
country  produced  much  gold,  business  had  been  es- 
tablished on  a  basis  of  gold  payments,  and  a  change 
would  have  created  serious  disturbance.  It  has  also 
been  objected  to  that  Californians  cut  no  figure  in  the 
war.  The  reason  was  simply  that  while  she  freely 
offered  men,  they  were  required  on  the  coast,  to  awe 
secessions  to  guard  against  foreign  interference,  and  to 
hold  the  threatening  Indians  in  check.  In  other  re- 
spects she  supplied  more  than  her  share  of  money,  in 
taxes  and  gifts,  and  by  her  attitude  did  much  to  assist 
the  union  cause. 

During  this  state  of  affairs  the  republicans  naturally 
gained  the  ascendency,  and  in  1861  they  placed  Le- 
land  Stanford,  who  had  canvassed  for  the  party,  in  the 
gubernatorial  chair,  and  sent  Sargent,  Phelps,  and  Low 
to  congress.  In  1862  they  called  themselves  the  union 
party,  and  liberally  invited  all  loyal  democrats  to  join. 
This  enabled  the  latter  to  replace  Latham  with  John 
Conness,  a  late  democratic  candidate  for  governor. 
The  new  senator  was  an  energetic  man,  and  brought 
his  slothful  colleague  to  task,  but  he  was  likewise  a 
politician  who  exerted  his  influence  at  the  primary 
conventions  to  manipulate  the  ticket  to  his  own  liking. 

The  election  of  1863  awakened  special  interest,  on 
account  of  the  longer  terms  now  introduced  by  the 
constitutional  amendments,  the  governor  and  state 
officials  for  four  years  from  December,  a  legislature 
whose  senators  should  in  part  hold  over  for  four  years, 
and  a  new  bench  of  supreme  judges  to  sit  for  ten 
years.  F.  F.  Low,  late  collector  of  San  Francisco, 
became  governor,  and  T.  B.  Shannon,  W.  Higby, 
and  G,  Cole,  congressmen,  all  firm  union  men. 


GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

Shafter,  Sawyer,  Sanderson,  Currey,  and  Rhodes 
were  chosen  supreme  judges,  together  with  fourteen 
district  judges  and  forty-two  county  judges.  The 
tempting  prizes  had  attracted  a  copperhead  competi- 
tion, through  whom  secessionists  sought  to  gain  some 
spoils,  by  dilating  on  the  length  and  cost  of  the  war 
and  the  prospective  repetition  of  drafts  for  the  army. 
Although  defeated  by  a  majority  of  more  than 
20,000  their  arguments  left  a  certain  impression, 
which  in  1864,  during  the  presidential  election,  mani- 
fested itself  in  more  pronounced  disloyal  utterances, 
and  in  the  southern  counties  by  election  tricks  and 
outrages  on  union  voters.  The  cause  lay  partly  in 
the  influx  of  fugitives  from  the  harassed  eastern 
states.  The  assassination  of  Lincoln,  however,  who 
had  received  a  large  majority  also  in  California, 
created  for  a  time  so  bitter  a  feeling  against  seces- 
sionists, attended  by  raids  on  democratic  newspaper 
offices,  that  southern  sympathies  had  to  be  subdued. 

The  loyalty  of  the  coast  had  been  rewarded  with 
concessions  for  a  transcontinental  railway,  which  was 
intended  also  to  bind  it  closer  to  the  union.  Such  a 
line  had,  in  fact,  become  for  several  reasons  almost 
a  national  necessity;  first,  to  check  the  threatened 
secession  of  California  and  other  Pacific  states  and 
territories;  second,  to  put  an  end  to  Indian  wars,  or 
at  least  to  shorten  their  term ;  and  third,  to  develop 
the  vast  and  then  almost  unpeopled  region  between 
the  Missouri  river  and  the  Pacific  ocean,  an  area 
forming  more  than  one  half  of  the  entire  surface  of 
the  union. 

Among  those  who  sought  to  manipulate  the  elections 
in  its  behalf  was  Senator  Conness.  Relying  too  much 
on  the  cohesion  of  the  union  party  and  his  own  man- 
agement, he  ventured  to  nominate  for  governor  G.  C. 
Gorham,  a  man  hateful  to  San  Francisco  for  his  com- 
plicity in  the  water-front  scheme,  and  marked  as  an 
obnoxious  lobbyist  in  a  legislature,  only  too  willing 


HAIGHT,  BOOTH,  PACHECO.  223 

to  favor  wealthy  corporations.  Other  nominations 
pointed,  moreover,  so  clearly  to  a  prostitution  of  party 
principles  for  place  and  money,  that  a  number  of  the 
purest  men  seceded,  to  form,  in  protest,  the  national 
republican  party.  The  split  served  to  strengthen  the 
democrats,  who  likewise  gained  numerous  adherents 
from  other  union  seceders,  and  from  the  working 
classes,  by  artful  heralding  of  reforms  and  declara- 
tions against  monopoly  and  war  rates.  The  result 
was  their  capture  of  the  executive  office  and  of  most  of 
the  assembly  seats.  The  union  party,  founded  on  pure 
and  patriotic  principles,  was  wrecked,  and  state  poli- 
tics returned  to  their  wallowing  in  the  mire. 

The  new  governor,  H.  H.  Haight,  was  a  lawyer, 
born  at  Rochester,  New  York,  in  1825,  educated  at 
Yale,  and  admitted  to  the  bar  at  St.  Louis,  whence 
he  came  with  his  father  to  practice  his  profession  in 
San  Francisco,  and  to  seek  for  place. 

Conness'  seat  in  the  federal  senate  was  filled  by 
Eugene  Casserly,  a  pure  and  accomplished  lawyer  of 
Irish  birth,  above  chicanery,  and  a  worthy  colleague 
of  Cornelius  Cole,  a  republican  lawyer  from  New 
York,  whose  election  some  time  before,  to  succeed 
McDougall,  was  marked  as  perhaps  the  only  sena- 
torial contest  in  the  state  not  governed  by  cliques. 

In  the  legislature  of  1867-8  a  republican  senate 
held  in  check  a  democratic  assembly,  and  few  ob- 
jectionable bills  found  passage.  This  was  not  due, 
however,  to  superiority  of  character  among  republi- 
cans, who  had,  in  a  measure,  been  spoiled  by  a  long 
run  of  success,  for  the  democrats  were  cautiously  try- 
ing to  regain  public  confidence,  and  on  many  proposi- 
tions they  exhibited  greater  self-restraint  than  the 
others,  as  shown  partly  in  the  senatorial  choice. 
Their  declaration  that  they  would  never  submit  to  the 
dictates  of  a  negro  vote,  though  savoring  of  southern 
sentiment,  won  so  wide  an  approval  that  at  the 
presidential  election  of  1868,  when  republican  voters 
came  forward  in  special  strength  to  honor  a  national 


224  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

hero,  the  democrats  managed  to  reduce  their  majority 
to  a  meagre  500,  as  compared  with  18,000  four  years 
previously.  The  republicans  re-asserted  themselves 
in  this  respect,  and  continued  to  give  a  majority  for 
republican  presidential  candidates  during  the  next 
twenty  years,  although  the  other  party  alternated  in 
state  victories. 

The  attempt  of  the  railway  to  secure  Goat  island 
as  a  terminus  roused  many  even  of  the  republicans, 
who  so  far  had  been  the  promoters  of  such  roads. 
By  putting  forward  an  anti-monopolist  candidate 
for  governor,  in  the  person  of  Newton  Booth,  in 
1871,  they  regained  confidence,  and  elected  their 
candidate,  together  with  three  congressmen  and  a 
large  majority  in  the  lower  house.  The  railway 
nevertheless  obtained  control  of  the  legislature. 
The  consequence  was  a  split  in  the  party.  The 
seceders,  calling  themselves  independents,  although 
facetiously  termed  Dolly  Vardens,  insisted  on  the 
necessity  of  curtailing  the  power  of  monopolies,  by 
regulating  fares  and  freights,  and  devising  an  irriga- 
tion system  for  the  state.  So  commendable  a  plat- 
form produced  a  large  rally,  particularly  among  the 
farmers,  and  the  reformers  secured  a  majority  in  the 
assembly,  and  passed  several  bills  in  conformity  with 
their  views. 

Among  the  results  was  the  election  to  both  the 
vacancies  in  the  national  senate  of  anti-monopolists, 
namely,  J.  S.  Hager,  a  democratic  lawyer  from 
New  York,  prominently  identified  with  California 
since  1849,  and  Governor  Booth,  who  resigned  the 
executive  post  to  the  lieutenant-governor,  Romualdo 
Pacheco,  a  native  Californian.  Booth  was  an  Indi- 
ana lawyer  who  had  acquired  a  fortune  in  mercantile 
pursuits  in  California,  together  with  a  reputation 
for  integrity  arid  ability  that  gained  for  him  high 
political  honors.  At  the  next  vacancy  the  republi- 
cans sent  to  the  senate  A.  A.  Sargent,  a  printer  of 
Massachusetts,  who  in  California  became  editor; 


BUSINESS  DEPRESSION.  225 

lawyer,  and  also  a  politician  of  skill  and  influence. 
In  1882  he  was  sent  as  minister  to  Germany,  but 
received  so  chilling  a  reception  at  the  aristocratic 
court  of  Berlin  that  he  resigned. 

In  1875  an  additional  division  of  the  republican 
party  enabled  the  democrats  to  reassert  themselves  in 
the  election  for  governor  of  William  Irwin,  an  editor 
and  college  professor  from  Ohio,  who  had  long  sat  in 
the  legislature,  and  in  securing  two  congressmen. 
During  Irwin's  tenure  of  office  the  working  classes 
resumed  the  agitation  of  the  collapsed  reform  party 
against  monopoly  and  cognate  evils  in  so  effective  a 
manner  as  to  procure  a  decided  change  in  affairs. 

The  attention  of  the  humbler  classes  to  the  growth 
of  capital,  and  its  intrusion  in  politics  and  on  popular 
rights,  had  been  first  roused  by  the  pressure  of  hard 
times.  The  close  of  the  war  and  the  opening  of  the 
railway  both  tended  to  undermine  a  number  of  manu- 
facturing industries,  which  had  sprung  up  on  the 
strength  of  the  distance  and  difficulty  of  communica- 
tions with  the  east.  The  influx  of  fugitives  during 
the  war,  and  the  return  now  of  the  richer  portion  of 
them,  together  with  residents  bent  on  visiting  and 
travelling,  increased  the  depression  in  business. 
Labor  began  to  clamor  against  competition,  and  for 
shorter  working  hours,  partly  with  a  view  to  give 
work  to  a  larger  number.  For  the  promotion  of 
these  aims  trades-unions  were  formed,  which,  with 
numerical  strength,  acquired  political  significance. 

The  cry  of  competition  was  directed  almost  exclu- 
sively against  the  Chinese,  whose  economic  habits 
and  abstemious  mode  of  life  enabled  them  to  accept 
lower  wages  than  would  suffice  for  the  white  work- 
man, with  wife  and  children  to  provide  for  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  comparatively  exacting  require- 
ments of  American  society.  They  had  begun  to 
enter  during  the  glow  of  the  first  gold  excitement. 
By  1852  their  number  exceeded  18,000,  and  the  in- 
crease continued  until  California  alone  contained  fully 

C.  B.— II.     15 


226  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

116,000  in  1876.  Aliens  in  race  and  customs,  they 
found  no  fellowship  among  the  white  people,  and 
their  consequent  isolation  tended  to  deprive  them  of 
public  sympathy.  The  hostility  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
miners  toward  foreigners  soon  concentrated  wholly 
against  the  Mongolians,  and  in  1855  the  legislature 
joined  in  their  persecution  by  means  of  oppressive 
taxes.  The  class  of  employers  favored  them,  how- 
ever, as  useful  and  even  indispensable  adjuncts  for  un- 
folding primary  resources  and  laying  the  foundation  for 
progressive  enterprises.  They  proved  to  be  more 
docile  and  reliable  than  other  laborers,  and  were  ac- 
cordingly welcomed  by  manufacturers,  farmers,  and 
housewives.  Their  absorption  of  a  number  of  leading 
industries,  and  competition  with  white  employes,  lent 
strength  to  the  renewed  outcry  against  them,  as  did 
the  Burlingame  treaty  of  1868,  under  which  they  were 
accorded  equal  privileges  with  the  most  favored  na- 
tions on  American  soil.  Congress  had  so  far  heeded 
the  appeal  of  the  state  as  to  send  a  special  commission 
to  investigate  the  trouble,  but  its  report  struck 
against  the  national  tradition  of  a  free  country  open 
to  all,  and  if  to  low  whites  and  blacks,  evidently,  also, 
to  low  yellow  races.  Nevertheless,  congress  was 
induced,  partly  by  demonstrations  on  the  part  of 
Californian  workmen  to  arrange  for  an  amendment 
of  the  treaty  with  China,  and  to  restrict  immigration 
thence.  Enough  loopholes  remained,  howe\7er,  to 
alarm  the  anti-Chinese  element,  and  more  stringent 
limitations  were  attempted. 

During  the  riotous  agitation  in  1877-8,  capital  as 
well  as  monopoly  was  seriously  endangered  by  the  mob 
in  incendiary  demonstrations.  A  panic  in  the  min- 
ing-stock market,  attended  by  a  commercial  crisis, 
lent  intensity  to  the  feeling  against  manipulating 
stock-dealers  and  mine-owners.  Land-owners  were 
denounced  for  hindering  settlement,  development,  and 
employment  by  keeping  large  tracts  from  the  market. 
The  cultivation  of  large  fields  under  the  easy  methods 


THE  NEW  CONSTITUTION,  227 

permitted  by  the  benign  climate  and  soil  of  California, 
operated  against  regular  employment  of  men,  and  led 
to  long  seasons  of  idleness  and  to  vagrancy.  For 
this,  and  more,  capital  was  blamed ;  and  so  threaten- 
ing became  the  attitude  of  the  rabble  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, that  the  vigilance  committee,  slumbering  since 
1856,  felt  it  necessary  to  come  forth  and  subdue  the 
movement.  The  leader  of  the  incendiaries  was  an 
Irish  drayman  named  Dennis  Kearney.  Finding 
that  intimidations  did  not  answer,  he  endeavored  to 
perfect  the  organization  of  his  followers,  and  bring 
them  together  with  some  more  orderly  sympathizers, 
into  the  workingman's  party,  which  advocated  the 
abrogation  of  the  Chinese  treaty,  equalization  of  taxes, 
judicial  reform,  and  other  measures, 

Other  parties  now  joined  in  renewing  the  demand 
for  a  revision  of  the  state  constitution.  The  existing 
one,  copied  after  remote  agricultural  states,  was  de- 
clared unsuited  to  the  peculiar  climate,  resources,  and 
conditions  of  California.  Taxes  should  be  so  re^u- 

o 

lated  as  to  lift  them  above  the  whims  of  a  changing 
and  easily  corrupted  legislature,  and  so  with  expendi- 
tures, grants,  etc.  A  constitutional  convention  was 
accordingly  agreed  upon,  which  met  in  September 
1878,  with  152  delegates,  including  85  non-partisan, 
50  workingmen,  and  17  republicans  and  democrats, 
35  foreign-born  being  chosen  to  prepare  laws  in  an 
American  state ! 

The  influence  of  the  working  class  is  perceptible  in 
several  clauses  of  the  new  organic  law  for  the  pro- 
tection of  labor  against  capital.  A  commendable 
proposition  for  a  property  qualification  for  voters  was 
promptly  set  aside.  The  legislature  was  forbidden  to 
charter  roads,  lend  the  credit  of  the  state,  grant  aid 
to  corporations  or  individuals,  or  dispose  of  water 
which  pertained  to  public  use ;  special  legislation  was, 
in  fact,  largely  restricted.  Corporations  were  so 
closely  regulated  in  management,  taxation,  and  so 
forth,  and  railways  so  subordinated  to  a  commission  for 


228  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

watching  over  charges  and  traffic,  that  they  raised 
serious  objections,  and  many  capitalists  departed  from 
the  state.  Taxation  was  applied  to  all  property,  ac- 
cording to  value,  including  moneys,  credits,  bonds, 
mortgages,  and  franchises;  land  cultivated  or  not  was 
to  be  equally  taxed  when  in  the  same  grade  and  posi- 
tion, in  order  to  discourage  large  holdings,  particularly 
for  speculation.  The  school  fund  was  to  be  applied 
only  to  primary  and  grammar  schools.  State  indebt- 
edness was  limited  to  $300,000,  save  in  case  of  war, 
or  by  special  consent  of  voters.  The  election  of  the 
secretary  of  state  was  assigned  to  the  people.  The 
supreme  court  was  to  consist  of  one  chief  justice, 
with  six  associates,  in  two  departments,  elected  by 
the  people  for  twelve  years,  with  a  salary  of  $6,000. 
County  and  district  courts  were  replaced  by  superior 
courts,  one  in  each  county,  with  one  or  two  judges 
elected  for  six  years,  with  a  salary  of  $3,000,  San 
Francisco  being  assigned  twelve  judges.  In  civil 
cases  the  verdict  of  a  majority  of  the  jury  was  ad- 
missible, and  regulations  were  added  to  ensure  speedy 
trials.  The  government  of  cities  was  left  almost  en- 
tirely to  their  inhabitants,  so  as  to  obviate  legislative 
schemes,  but  thereby  they  were  also  more  exposed  to 
partisan  votes,  notably  from  a  low  suburban  unit  class, 
and  to  the  corrupt  ruling  of  supervisors.  Consoli- 
dated cities  and  counties  with  a  population  not  ex- 
ceeding 100,000  should  have  two  boards  of  supervisors. 
No  county  or  municipality  could  spend  more  than  its 
yearly  income,  save  by  consent  of  two- thirds  among 
the  voters.  The  presence  of  foreigners  ineligible  to 
become  citizens  was  declared  to  be  detrimental  to  the 
state.  The  coolie  system  was  forbidden.  Eight 
hours  were  to  constitute  a  day's  work  on  all  public 
contracts. 

The  constitution  was  widely  objected  to  as  hamper- 
ing legislation  with  too  many  restrictions  ;  introducing 
an  untried  plan  of  judiciary ;  favoring  non-resident 
holders  of  property  in  taxation  ;  taking  away  the  con- 


THE  NEW  CONSTITUTION.  229 

trol  of  railways  from  a  large  legislative  body,  and 
leaving  it  to  three  commissioners,  with  power  to 
establish  rates ;  many  evils  which  promised  to  issue 
from  such  a  constitution  were  left  irremediable. 
So  many  doubts  rose  even  among  workingmen  con- 
cerning it  that  San  Francisco,  their  stronghold,  ac- 
tually rejected  it,  and  the  farmers  alone,  allured  by  a 
lighter  taxation,  passed  it  by  a  small  majority,  and 
made  it  the  state  law.  Amendments  of  the  old  con- 
stitution would  have  answered  better,  for  the  new 
document  failed  in  its  main  objects,  to  regulate  cor- 
porations and  equalize  taxation.  Bribery,  corruption, 
Chinese,  and  other  ills  continued  to  flourish.  Amend- 
ments to  enforce  the  control  of  railways  were  early 
introduced,  but  were  rejected  by  voters.  San  Fran- 
cisco likewise  refused  to  adopt  any  one  of  the  several 
charters  submitted  to  her,  in  accordance  with  the  new 
organic  act. 

The  sway  of  foreigners  arid  socialists,  as  impressed 
on  the  constitution,  roused  the  republicans  to  an  effort 
for  redeeming  the  state,  and  at  the  election  of  1879 
they  succeeded  in  installing  as  governor  George  C. 
Perkins,  whose  biography  is  given  in  a  preced- 
ing chapter  of  this  volume.  The  democrats  and 
workingmen  elected  the  supreme  judges,  but  the  re- 
publicans carried  the  congress  delegation,  and  obtained 
a  majority  in  the  state  senate,  and  practically  in  the 
assembly.  So  prompt  a  modification  of  the  newly  in- 
augurated state  of  affairs  was  greatly  due  to  moneyed 
influence.  The  late  reconstruction  party  was  prac- 
tically shattered.  Its  unthinking  element  could  not 
withstand  the  machinations  of  demagogue  instru- 
ments, as  indicated  by  the  choice  for  mayor  at  San 
Francisco. 

The  following  year  the  democrats  obtained  an  ex- 
ceptional though  slight  majority  for  General  Han- 
cock as  presidential  candidate,  but  the  republicans 
divided  with  them  the  congressmen,  and  gained  a  de- 
cided majority  in  the  legislature.  They  consequently 


230  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

selected  as  successor  of  Senator  Booth  John  F.  Mil- 
ler, a  former  state  senator  of  Indiana,  who  had  risen 
to  the  rank  of  major-general  during  the  union  war, 
after  which  he  served  as  collector  of  the  port  of  San 
Francisco,  and  became  president  of  the  Alaska  Com- 
mercial company.  He  assisted  to  carry  restrictive 
measures  against  the  Chinese.  Upon  his  death  in 
1886  the  term  was  completed  by  A.  P.  Williams,  a 
merchant  from  Maine,  and  chairman  of  the  republican 
state  central  committee.  The  following  year  a  dem- 
ocratic majority  in  the  legislature  replaced  him  with 
George  Hearst.  The  senator  appointed  by  the  demo- 
cratic legislature  of  1877-8,  Jarnes  T.  Farley,  a  law- 
yer from  Virginia,  long  in  the  legislature,  and  for  a 
time  speaker  of  the  house,  had  been  meanwhile  sup- 
planted by  Leland  Stanford,  late  republican  governor, 
so  that  the  two  parties  were  fairly  balanced  at  the 
national  capital. 

In  1881  the  republicans  were  numerically  ahead  in 
the  legislature ;  the  democrats  acquired  control  never- 
theless and  disgraced  the  session  by  wasting  the  lim- 
ited term  in  useless  discussion,  so  that  the  governor 
was  obliged  to  call  an  extra  session,  the  limitation  of 
which  was  needlessly  exceeded.  The  following  year 
they  affirmed  their  majority,  and  managed  to  squander 
additional  money  not  long  after  in  a  special  session 
for  amending  the  constitution  on  railway  regulations, 
which  ended  in  nothing;  nor  was  there  indeed  any 
shadow  of  excuse  for  thus  prolonging  the  session, 
and  causing,  without  any  tangible  result,  a  wanton 
waste  of  the  public  funds. 

The  presidential  election  of  1884  called  forth  the 
large  respectable  element,  seldom  interested  in  local 
agitations,  which  came  resolved  also  to  express  its  dis- 
approval of  the  legislative  proceedings.  The  result 
was  a  marked  reversal  by  a  republican  majority,  which 
secured  the  control  of  the  legislature  and  five  of  the 
six  congressmen,  besides  a  gain  of  several  San  Fran- 
cisco positions,  and  a  large  plurality  of  votes  for 


ELECTIONS   OF   1884-1886.  231 

Elaine,  the  presidential  candidate.  Two  years  later 
the  democrats  regained  a  certain  advantage  by  virtue 
of  a  republican  split,  and  elected  for  governor  Wash- 
ington Bartlett,  the  first  American  alcalde  of  San 
Francisco,  and  in  1882-G  one  of  her  most  esteemed 
mayors.  He  was  originally  a  printer  from  Georgia, 
who  had  founded  and  edited  a  number  of  newspapers 
in  this  his  adopted  state.  His  death  in  the  following 
year  brought  to  the  executive  office  R.  W.  Waterman, 
whose  popularity  had  obtained  for  him  the  lieutenant- 
governorship  on  the  republican  ticket.  Five  of  the 
congressmen  were  likewise  republican,  but  in  the 
legislature  the  other  party  obtained  control. 

The  regime  of  Governor  Waterman,  though  not 
distinguished  by  any  special  feature,  perhaps  for 
that  reason  more  than  any  other,  gave  satisfaction  to 
the  community,  for  a  people  is  never  so  well  ruled  as 
when  the  touch  of  the  ruler  is  imperceptible.  In  his 
message  for  1889  were  many  excellent  suggestions, 
among  others,  the  abolition  of  all  unnecessary  offices 
and  the  granting  of  liberal  appropriations  for  needed 
improvements. 

During  the  session  of  1888—9,  numerous  measures 
were  adopted  by  the  legislature;  perhaps  the  most 
important  were  certain  acts  amending  and  supple- 
menting the  irrigation  laws.  Others  were  for  im- 
proving the  civil  code  of  procedure,  for  establishing 
a  reform  school  and  a  school  of  industry,  with  ap- 
propriations for  other  public  institutions  and  improve- 
ments. No  action  was  taken,  however,  on  the 
governor's  recommendation  that  remedies  be  applied 
for  the  suppression  of  the  so-called  "  tramp  nuisance," 
one  growing  every  year  more  serious,  and  calling 
forth  urgent  requests  from  every  portion  of  the  state 
that  laws  be  enacted  for  its  abolition. 

I  will  now  give  more  at  length  the  biographies  of 
some  who  have  helped  to  raise  California  to  the 
proud  position  already  attained  among  the  sister- 
hood of  states. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LIFE  OF  ORVILLE  C.    PRATT. 

THE  BAB  AND  JUDICIARY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST — NATIVITY  AND  EDUCATION 
— AT  WEST  POINT — LEGAL  STUDIES — IN  PRACTICE  AT  ROCHESTER — AT 
GALENA — MISSION  TO  OREGON — INCIDENTS  OF  THE  JOURNEY — SHIP- 
VVRECKKD — SUPREME  COURT  JUDGE— THE  WHITMAN  MASSACRE  CASE—- 
OTHER TRIALS — THE  LOCATION  CONTROVERSY — JUDICIAL  CAREER  IN  CALI- 
FORNIA— DECISION — BUSINESS  TRANSACTIONS — MARRIAGE — CHARACTER. 

ALTHOUGH  we  must  not  expect  always  to  find  justice 
in  a  court  of  law,  particularly  if  it  be  a  plain  case  before 
a  jury,  yet  we  may  truthfully  say  that  on  the  Pacific 
coast  are  found  a  full  proportion  of  able  lawyers  and 
honest  judges.  Many  there  are  whose  knowledge  and 
correct  appplication  of  the  principles  of  law, and  whose 
lucid  method  of  presenting  the  most  difficult  and  com- 
plex questions,  with  clearness  and  fullness  of  illustra- 
tion, are  worthy  of  the  great  legal  luminaries  whose 
career  in  the  eastern  states  has  won  for  them  a  world- 
wide reputation.  As  a  rule  it  is  at  the  bar,  rather 
than  on  the  bench,  that  we  look  for  the  highest  order 
of  talent,  the  annual  stipend  even  of  a  supreme  court 
judge  being  less  than  the  amount  often  earned  in 
a  single  month,  and  at  times  even  in  a  single  day, 
by  several  of  our  leading  practitioners.  But  to  this 
there  are  exceptions;  for  in  the  ranks  of  the  judiciary 


ORVILLE   C.  PRATT.  233 

there  are  and  have  been  several  who,  though  assured 
of  a  lucrative  practice  at  the  bar,  preferred  from  high 
and  most  worthy  motives,  as  from  a  sense  of  public 
duty,  or  to  gratify  an  honorable  ambition,  to  accept 
such  laborious  and  ill-remunerated  positions.  Among 
the  more  prominent  instances  may  be  mentioned  that 
of  a  former  judge  of  the  twelfth  judicial  district  court 
of  the  city  and  county  of  San  Francisco,  Orville  C. 
Pratt;  and  it  is  no  injustice  either  to  the  living  or 
the  dead  to  say  that  in  the  most  essential  qualities, 
whether  of  a  judge  or  an  advocate,  in  strength  of 
memory,  combination  and  analysis  of  facts,  in  power 
of  close,  logical  reasoning,  in  command  of  appropriate 
language,  and  in  knowledge  not  only  of  the  law  but 
of  men  and  of  the  world,  he  had  few  superiors  among 
his  contemporaries.  While  introducing  to  the  reader 
a  sketch  of  his  career,  it  may  here  be  further  stated 
that,  although  in  some  respects  peculiar,  he  was  one 
of  the  earliest  and  most  able  judges  of  the  United 
States  territorial,  district,  and  supreme  court  of  Ore- 
gon, of  which  state  he  was  also  a  pioneer,  one  of  that 
famous  band  of  whom  it  has  been  well  said,  as  of  the 
pilgrim  fathers,  that  they  builded  better  than  they 
knew. 

Pratt  was  born  in  Ontario  county,  New  York,  on 
the  24th  of  April,  1819,  and  received  his  earlier 
eduction  at  Rushville,  in  that  county,  where  the  pub- 
lic schools  then  ranked  among  the  best  in  the  state. 
The  training  thus  acquired,  extending  from  the  pri- 
mary to  the  high  school  grades,  was  further  supple- 
mented by  a  course  of  classics  and  mathematics  at 
two  local  academies,  and  thus,  before  reaching  his 
seventeenth  year,  he  was  not  only  well  versed  in  those 
branches,  but  had  become  a  thorough  English  scholar. 
His  tastes  and  ability  inclined,  however,  to  the  math- 
ematics, in  which  he  displayed  considerable  proficiency, 
making  himself  master  of  several  branches  of  that 
science,  including  those  necessary  to  the  study  of  its 
highest  departments. 


234  G  0  VERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

In  connection  with  his  school  career  an  incident 
may  be  mentioned  that  will  serve  to  display  in  its 
strongest  light  the  confidence  and  esteem  which  his 
ability,  zeal,  and  earnestness  of  purpose  had  already 
won  for  him  in  the  community.  In  the  winter  of 
1835,  a  law  having  been  passed  by  the  New  York 
legislature  donating  the  sum  of  twenty  dollars  to  all 
common  school  districts  which  subscribed  a  similar 
amount  toward  the  nucleus  of  a  school  library,  after 
discussing  the  matter  with  a  distinguished  clergyman 
of  Albany,  named  E.  N.  Kirk,  he  so  impressed  him 
and  others  with  his  clearness  and  force  of  argument, 
as  well  as  his  fervid  and  unselfish  enthusiasm  in  the 
cause  of  education,  that  it  was  resolved  to  secure  his 
services  as  a  public  advocate.  To  this  end  Mr  Kirk 
secured  the  cooperation,  among  others,  of  James 
Wadsworth  of  Geneseo — the  father  of  General  Wads- 
worth  who  fell  at  Gettysburg — one  whose  wealth 
and  family  connections  placed  him  among  the  most 
prominent  men  in  the  state.  The  ability  and  faith- 
fulness with  which  Mr  Pratt  fulfilled  his  mission, 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  lie  delivered 
addresses  in  each  township  in  the  counties  of  Living- 
ston, Monroe,  and  Erie,  discussing  elaborately  the 
entire  question,  and  succeeding  in  every  instance  in 
establishing  a  good  librarv  in  each  of  the  several  dis- 
tricts. That  an  inexperienced  youth  should  thus  have 
been  selected  for  a  task  worthy  of  a  mature  and  prac- 
tised speaker,  and  should  have  carried  it  to  a  success- 
ful issue,  was  a  public  service  to  which  Pratt  looked 
back  with  more  of  becoming  pride  than  to  all  his 
forensic  triumphs. 

Soon  afterward  he  received  from  President  Jackson 
an  appointment  to  a  eadetship  in  the  United  States 
military  academy  at  West  Point,  which  he  entered  as  a 
member  of  the  class  of  1837.  In  the  old  time,  it  will  be 
remembered,  such  positions  were  not  bestowed  as  the 
result  of  competitive  examinations,  nor  did  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family  possess  any  special  political  influence ; 


ORVILLE   C.  PRATT.  235 

hence  the  nomination  may  be  considered  as  a  recog- 
nition of  the  young  man's  ability  and  strength  of 
character,  and  of  his  promise  of  future  usefulness. 
He  remained  at  West  Point  for  two  years,  and  ranked, 
both  in  conduct  and  studies,  among  the  first  in  his 
class,  although  for  military  studies,  except  when  con- 
nected with  the  higher  mathematics,  he  had  but  little 
taste.  His  ambition  was  to  be  a  lawyer,  and  to  that 
end  he  had  begun  to  prepare  himself  even  before  his 
appointment.  In  the  army  at  that  date  there  was 
little  chance  of  perferment,  the  country  being  at  peace, 
a  peace  then  unclouded  by  any  symptom  of  the  storm 
which  a  few  years  later  swept  with  the  fury  of  a  tor- 
nado through  the  fairest  portions  of  the  union.  For 
a  military  man  the  only  prospect  was  to  pass  the  best 
years  of  life  at  some  frontier  pest,  or  perhaps  to  lose 
it  in  some  petty  encounter  with  savages.  Such  a 
career  could  not  satisfy  the  earnest  strivings  of  his 
nature  ;  for  with  his  talents  and  ambition  he  thought 
himself  fitted  for  some  wider  and  more  useful  sphere. 
Moreover,  his  father  had  met  with  reverses,  and  being 
past  middle  age,  would  not  be  able  much  longer  to 
support  his  family  in  comfort.  To  Orville,  as  the 
eldest  son,  its  members  would  look  for  aid,  and 
assuredly  they  must  not  look  in  vain.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  to  go  forth  into  the  world  and  earn  for  him- 
self a  name  and  a  fortune,  or  at  least  he  would 
attempt  it,  and  that  at  once.  His  resignation  fol- 
lowed, and  thus  did  his  country  loose  a  good  soldier, 
while  gaining  the  services  of  one  of  the  most  able 
among  her  many  eminent  lawyers  and  jurists.  Had 
he  remained  in  the  army  he  would  doubtless  have 
risen  to  high  rank,  as  did  many  of  his  fellow-cadets  ; 
among  them  generals  Sherman,  McDowell,  Reynolds, 
Hooker,  Halleck.  Ord,  Rosecrans,  Lyon,  Pope,  Buell, 
and  of  the  confederates  Longstreet  and  Beauregard. 
Among  his  friends  and  relatives  was  a  lawyer 
named  Samuel  Stevens,  then  one  of  the  leciders  of 
the  Albany  bar,  and  at  the  invitation  of  this  man, 


234  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

In  connection  with  his  school  career  an  incident 
may  be  mentioned  that  will  serve  to  display  in  its 
strongest  light  the  confidence  and  esteem  which  his 
ability,  zeal,  and  earnestness  of  purpose  had  already 
won  for  him  in  the  community.  In  the  winter  of 
1835,  a  law  having  been  passed  by  the  New  York 
legislature  donating  the  sum  of  twenty  dollars  to  all 
common  school  districts  which  subscribed  a  similar 
amount  toward  the  nucleus  of  a  school  library,  after 
discussing  the  matter  with  a  distinguished  clergyman 
of  Albany,  named  E.  N.  Kirk,  he  so  impressed  him 
and  others  with  his  clearness  and  force  of  argument, 
as  well  as  his  fervid  and  unselfish  enthusiasm  in  the 
cause  of  education,  that  it  was  resolved  to  secure  his 
services  as  a  public  advocate.  To  this  end  Mr  Kirk 
secured  the  cooperation,  among  others,  of  James 
Wadsworth  of  Geneseo — the  father  of  General  Wads- 
worth  who  fell  at  Gettysburg — one  whose  wealth 
and  family  connections  placed  him  among  the  most 
prominent  men  in  the  state.  The  ability  and  faith- 
fulness with  which  Mr  Pratt  fulfilled  his  mission, 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  he  delivered 
addresses  in  each  township  in  the  counties  of  Living- 
ston, Monroe,  and  Erie,  discussing  elaborately  the 
entire  question,  and  succeeding  in  every  instance  in 
establishing  a  good  library  in  each  of  the  several  dis- 
tricts. That  an  inexperienced  youth  should  thus  have 
been  selected  for  a  task  worthy  of  a  mature  and  prac- 
tised speaker,  and  should  have  carried  it  to  a  success- 
ful issue,  was  a  public  service  to  which  Pratt  looked 
back  with  more  of  becoming  pride  than  to  all  his 
forensic  triumphs. 

Soon  afterward  he  received  from  President  Jackson 
an  appointment  to  a  cadetship  in  the  United  States 
military  academy  at  West  Point,  which  he  entered  as  a 
member  of  the  class  of  1837.  In  the  old  time,  it  will  be 
remembered,  such  positions  were  not  bestowed  as  the 
result  of  competitive  examinations,  nor  did  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family  possess  any  special  political  influence; 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  235 

hence  the  nomination  may  be  considered  as  a  recog- 
nition of  the  young  man's  ability  and  strength  of 
character,  and  of  his  promise  of  future  usefulness. 
He  remained  at  West  Point  for  two  years,  and  ranked, 
both  in  conduct  and  studies,  among  the  first  in  his 
class,  although  for  military  studies,  except  when  con- 
nected with  the  higher  mathematics,  he  had  but  little 
taste.  His  ambition  was  to  be  a  lawyer,  and  to  that 
end  he  had  begun  to  prepare  himself  even  before  his 
appointment.  In  the  army  at  that  date  there  was 
little  chance  of  perferment,  the  country  being  at  peace, 
a  peace  then  unclouded  by  any  symptom  of  the  storm 
which  a  few  years  later  swept  with  the  fury  of  a  tor- 
nado through  the  fairest  portions  of  the  union.  For 
a  military  man  the  only  prospect  was  to  pass  the  best 
years  of  life  at  some  frontier  post,  or  perhaps  to  lose 
it  in  some  petty  encounter  with  savages.  Such  a 
career  could  not  satisfy  the  earnest  strivings  of  his 
nature  ;  for  with  his  talents  and  ambition  he  thought 
himself  fitted  for  some  wider  and  more  useful  sphere, 
Moreover,  his  father  had  met  with  reverses,  and  being 
past  middle  age,  would  not  be  able  much  longer  to 
support  his  family  in  comfort.  To  Orville,  as  the 
eldest  son,  its  members  would  look  for  aid,  and 
assuredly  they  must  not  look  in  vain.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  to  go  forth  into  the  world  and  earn  for  him- 
self a  name  and  a  fortune,  or  at  least  he  would 
attempt  it,  and  that  at  once.  His  resignation  fol- 
lowed, and  thus  did  his  country  loose  a  good  soldier, 
while  gaining  the  services  of  one  of  the  most  able 
among  her  many  eminent  lawyers  and  jurists.  Had 
he  remained  in  the  army  he  would  doubtless  have 
risen  to  high  rank,  as  did  many  of  his  fellow-cadets  ; 
among  them  generals  Sherman,  McDowell,  Reynolds, 
Hooker,  Halleck.  Ord,  Rosecrans,  Lyon,  Pope,  Buell, 
and  of  the  confederates  Lonp'street  and  Beaureofard. 

O  O 

Among  his  friends  and  relatives  was  a  lawyer 
named  Samuel  Stevens,  then  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Albany  bar,  and  at  the  invitation  of  this  man, 


2.36  ORVILLE  C.  PRATT. 

who  had  observed  his  acuteness  for  the  legal  pro- 
fession, he  entered  his  chambers  as  a  student,  and  was 
admitted  two  years  later  to  practise  in  the  supreme 
court  of  the  state  of  New  York.  Then  at  the  ao-e  of 

^ 

twenty-one  he  began  his  professional  career,  opening 
an  office  in  Rochester,  where  clients  were  not  slow  to 
recognize  his  abilities. 

It  was  the  year  1840,  the  year  of  the  great  presi- 
dential campaign,  perhaps  the  greatest  that  ever 
occurred  in  the  political  history  of  the  United  States, 
when  charges  of  extravagance  and  corruption  were 
freely  preferred  against  the  administration  of  Presi- 
dent Van  Buren,  who,  however,  in  his  last  annual 
message,  answered  them  with  becoming  pride  by 
declaring  the  country  free  from  debt.  During  this 
canvass  Pratt  took  an  active  part  in  supporting  the 
great  democratic  leader,  who  was  again  the  nominee 
of  his  party,  and  addressed  large  audiences  in  the 
western  counties  of  New  York,  thus  introducing  him- 
self to  the  public,  and  acquiring  the  self-possession  and 
presence  of  mind  essential  to  political  stump-speaking. 

By   this   time    he    was    recognized   as    a    man    of 

t/  O 

strong  character  and  brilliant  promise,  one  whose 
natural  gifts  were  supplemented  by  unusual  appli- 
cation and  power  of  work.  Among  those  to  whom 
such  qualities  recommended  him,  was  Fletcher  M. 
Haight,  one  of  the  leading  practitioners  in  Roches- 
ter, who  later  came  to  California,  and  was  made 
judge.  By  this  man  he  was  taken  into  partner- 
ship, and  under  the  firm  name  of  Haight  &  Pratt 
the  business  was  successfully  conducted  until  the  for- 
mer, after  the  decease  of  his  wife  in  1842,  to  whom 
he  was  tenderly  devoted,  withdrew  from  the  connec- 
tion and  the  scene  of  his  affliction. 

For  most  men  the  position  to  which  he  had 
attained  thus  early,  with  a  fair  practice  and  prospects 
of  the  brightest,  would  have  been  sufficient  induce- 
ment to  remain  in  the  city  where  he  was  so  well 
appreciated,  but  not  so  with  Mr  Pratt.  At  that  date 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  2S? 

the  attention  of  many  men  was  directed  towards  the 
west,  as  the  land  where  states  and  commonwealths 
would  spring  into  being  as  at  the  touch  of  a  magic 
wand.  Himself  a  man  of  sanguine  and  fearless  tem- 
perament, he  resolved  to  be  in  the  van  of  those  daring 
and  adventurous  spirits  who  were  already  pushing 
forward  into  that  unknown  and  mysterious  region. 
But  this  he  could  not  do  at  once,  since,  for  the  time 
being,  he  must  live  by  his  profession,  and  as  yet  the 
far  west  was  little  better  than  a  primeval  solitude. 

Toward  the  close  of  1843,  therefore,  we  find  him  at 
Galena,  Illinois,  where  he  opened  an  office  and  speed- 
ily acquired  a  lucrative  practice.  To  this  point  his 
fame  as  a  public  speaker  had  already  preceded  him,  and 
on  the  8th  of  January  1844,  at  a  meeting  held  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  he  deliv- 
ered an  address  which  so  moved  the  hearts  and 
appealed  to  the  judgment  of  his  hearers  as  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the  com- 
munity. In  the  same  year,  after  the  nomination  of 
Polk  for  the  presidency,  his  services  as  a  public 
speaker  were  again  in  demand;  and  during  the  cam- 
paign which  followed,  he  ably  canvassed  several 
counties  in  northern  Illinois,  his  speeches  attracting 
the  attention  not  only  of  the  democratic  leaders  of  the 
state  but  even  of  the  successful  candidate  in  that 
exciting  contest. 

The  Texas  question  and  boundary  question  were 
the  chief  issues,  involving,  as  they  did,  the  proposed 
annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  controversy  then  pend- 
ing with  Great  Britain  as  to  the  possession  of  Oregon. 
By  his  familiarity  with  the  points  involved,  and  the 
skill  and  force  with  which  he  discussed  them,  the 
young  lawyer  rendered  valuable  service  to  his  party, 
and  at  the  same  time  gained  for  himself  still  wider 
and  more  favorable  recognition. 

Perhaps  the  best  evidence  of  the  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held  by  the  community  was  his  election  in 
1847  to  the  convention  which  revised  the  first  con- 


238  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

stitution  of  Illinois.  He  was  one  of  the  youngest,  if 
not  the  youngest,  member  of  that  body,  which  con- 
tained, perhaps,  more  men  of  note  than  had  ever 
before  been  assembled  in  any  portion  of  the  state. 
Among  them  were  Stephen  T.  Logan,  the  then  law- 
partner  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  David  Davis,  after- 
ward associate-justice  of  the  United  States  supreme 
court,  and  later  president  of  the  senate.  In  all  its 
deliberations,  extending  over  a  session  of  three  months, 
he  took  an  active  part,  and  especially  on  questions  of 
suffrage  and  finance,  as  to  which  many  of  his  sugges- 
tions were  adopted  by  his  colleagues. 

After  its  close  he  was  appointed  by  W.  L.  Marcy, 
then  secretary  of  war  and  formerly  governor  of  New 
York,  to  whom  in  former  years  he  had  rendered  ser- 
vice by  aiding  in  the  suppression  of  a  local  riot  in  the 
county  of  Albany,  one  of  a  commission  to  investigate 
certain  charges  against  an  army  officer  stationed  at 
Mann's  fort  on  the  Arkansas  river,  and  who  later 
became  governor  of  Colorado.  He  accepted  and  went 
there.  In  support  of  the  charges  no  sufficient  evi- 
dence was  produced,  and  soon  after  forwarding  the 
commissioner's  report  to  that  effect,  he  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  courier,  Kit  Carson,  a  despatch  from 
the  war  department,  requesting  him  to  proceed  to 
Mexico,  California,  and  Oregon,  there  to  inquire  into 
and  report  upon  certain  matters  of  a  confidential 
nature.  He  then  set  forth  for  Santa  Fe,  and  thence 
with  an  escort  of  sixteen  men,  furnished  by  the  gen- 
eral-in-command,  among  them  being  the  adventurous 
negro,  Jim  Beckworth  whose,  name  was  later  given  to 
the  Beckworth  pass,  journeyed  to  Los  Angeles  by  way 
of  the  San  Juan,  Grand,  and  Green  rivers,  over  the 
Wasatch  mountains  and  through  the  Utah  valley 
and  Cajon  pass  into  California.  It  was  well  for  the 
expedition  that  it  had  as  its  leader  a  man  of  his  prac- 
tical experience  and  military  training;  for  during  the 
trip  were  encountered  all  the  dangers  and  hardships 
incidental  to  pioneer  days,  when  from  the  valley  of 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  230 

the  Platte  to  the  vales  of  California  the  journey  was 
one  continuous  struggle  with  the  obstacles  of  nature 
and  with  hostile  savages. 

From  Los  Angeles,  where  his  party  first  heard  of 
the  discovery  of  gold  at  Coloma,  near  the  American 
river,  he  proceeded  to  Monterey,  and  transacted  with 
the  United  States  consul  a  portion  of  the  confidential 
business  with  which  he  had  been  entrusted.  There  he 
met  with  generals,  or  as  they  then  ranked,  lieutenants 
Halleck,  Sherman,  and  Ord,  his  fellow-cadets  at  West 
Point.  His  business  completed  he  left  for  San  Jose, 
where  he  arrived  about  the  middle  of  November,  and 
at  the  request  of  its  leading  citizens  addressed  a  pub- 
lic meeting,  called  to  consider  the  question  of  estab- 
lishing a  provisional  government  until  congress  should 
take  action  in  the  premises.  This  was  the  first  meet- 
ing called  to  obtain  an  expression  of  public  sentiment 
on  the  matter  ;  the  resolutions  passed  on  that  occasion 
were  afterward  endorsed  in  San  Francisco,  Monterey 
and  Sacramento,  and  were  followed  by  a  call  for  a 
convention,  made  by  order  of  the  then  military  gov- 
ernor, General  Riley. 

From  San  Jose  he  proceeded  to  San  Francisco,  or 
as  it  was  then  called  Yerba  Buena,  at  that  date  a  vil- 
lage of  only  three  or  four  hundred  inhabitants,  with 
a  few  score  huts  and  adobe  houses  clustering  around 
the  neighborhood  of  Portsmouth  Square. 

It  was  now  the  time  when  the  first  large  consign- 
ment of  gold  was  arriving  from  the  mines,  and  all  was 
bustle  and  confusion.  Men  clad  in  greasy  buckskin 
garments,  with  pockets  filled  with  gold-dust  and  nug- 
gets, were  to  be  seen  on  every  street,  discoursing  to 
crowds  of  eager  listeners  of  the  fabulous  wealth  that 
lay  almost  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  within 
reach  of  all.  Gambling  was  in  full  blast,  and  the 
gambling-tables  were  heaped  with  gold,  of  which 
everyone  seemed  to  possess  an  abundance,  and  which 
was  squandered  for  the  gratification  of  every  whim, 
caprice,  and  vice,  with  but  slight  restraint,  and  almost 


240  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

without  sense  of  responsibility.  Merchants  were  busy 
packing  and  forwarding  goods  to  the  mines,  for  which, 
in  the  absence  of  coined  money,  gold-dust  was  taken 
in  exchange  at  $14  per  ounce.  In  a  word,  the  gold 
fever  had  now  fairly  set  in,  and  was  destined  to  cul- 
minate in  an  excitement  such  as  the  world  has  never 
witnessed  before  or  since. 

But  with  all  this  Mr  Pratt  was  not  concerned. 
His  destination  was  Oregon,  of  which  territory  he  had 
been  appointed  by  President  Polk,  in  recognition  of 
his  services  as  confidential  agent  of  the  government, 
an  associate  justice  of  its  supreme  and  district  courts. 
Early  in  December  he  took  passage  for  Portland  on 
the  barque  Undine.  During  the  trip  an  incident 
occurred  which  serves  to  show  that  he  possessed  in 
no  small  degree  what  may  be  termed  the  genius  of 
observation,  which,  as  Balzac  would  have  us  believe, 
constitutes  about  all  the  genius  of  mankind.  After  a 
long  and  stormy  passage,  the  vessel  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  toward  nightfall  on  the  twenty-sixth 
day  of  the  voyage.  There  were  none  on  board  who 
were  acquainted  with  the  navigation  of  the  river,  the 
entrance  to  which  was  and  still  is  the  terror  even  of 
experienced  navigators.  Deeming  it  unsafe  to  attempt 
the  crossing  of  the  bar  at  so  late  an  hour,  the  captain 
put  off  to  sea  until  the  following  day;  and  mean- 
while, after  having  carefully  scanned  the  mouth  of  the 
river  and  the  adjacent  coast,  Pratt  had  prepared  a 
small  chart  of  the  entrance,  and  had  marked  thereon 
several  of  the  more  prominent  points,  such  as  Saddle 
mountain,  Point  Adams,  and  Cape  Disappointment. 
On  the  following  day,  as  the  barque  neared  land,  he 
showed  his  drawing  to  the  captain,  remarking  as  he 
did  so,  "If  we  were  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
last  night,  we  are  certainly  not  there  now."  The 
latter  paid  little  attention  to  the  warning,  and  after 
some  further  discussion,  Pratt  went  below.  Then 
came  up  a  storm,  and  with  it  an  atmosphere  so  dense 
that  it  was  impossible  to  see  more  than  a  few  rods 


ORVILLE   C.  PRATT.  241 

ahead.  Soon  afterward  the  vessel  struck  thrice  on  a 
sand-bar,  but  the  third  time  lightly,  and  through  good- 
fortune  was  driven  by  the  strength  of  the  wind  into 
the  deep  water  beyond.  At  length  the  captain 
admitted  that  he  was  not  at  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia; he  had  unwittingly  entered  what  is  at  present 
known  as  Shoal  water  bay,  his  being  the  first  vessel 
that  ever  entered  its  waters. 

The  ship  was  temporarily  abandoned,  and  her  crew 
and  passengers  formed  into  two  parties,  one  of  which 
set  forth  northward  toward  Puget  sound,  suffering 
severely  from  frost  arid  snow,  and  the  other  under  the 
direction  of  Judge  Pratt,  who  was  chosen  its  leader 
by  common  consent,  followed  the  coast  line  to  Cape 
Disappointment,  crossing  thence  in  canoes  to  Astoria, 
and  finally  reaching  Portland  in  safety. 

At  that  time  the  people  of  Oregon  were  in  a  most 
unsettled  condition.  A  large  portion  of  the  able-bod- 
ied men  had  left  for  the  gold  mines  of  California,  and 
in  the  small  settlements  there  was  constant  fear  of 
Indian  depredations.  Late  in  the  previous  autumn 
had  occurred  the  massacre  at  Waiilatpu,  whereby  the 
missionary  Whitman  and  his  wife,  with  eleven  others, 
had  lost  their  lives;  and  as  this  atrocious  deed  then 
remained  unpunished  the  settlers  were  in  constant 
dread  that  at  any  moment  further  outrages  might  be 
committed.  There  were  no  soldiers  in  the  territory, 
and  but  the  scantiest  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition. 
Farms  and  villages  were  few  and  wide  apart,  and 
throughout  the  land  prevailed  a  general  feeling  of 
insecurity.  Such  was  Oregon  and  its  inhabitants 
when  Pratt  cast  in  his  lot  in  that  territory,  and  ac- 
cepted from  considerations  of  the  main  chance,  rather 
than  for  its  honor  or  emoluments,  the  office  of  asso- 
ciate judge,  at  a  salary  of  $2,000  a  year,  an  amount 
less  than  could  be  earned  on  this  coast  at  the  time 
by  a  mechanic  or  unskilled  laborer,  and  below  the 
annual  income  which  he  could  have  earned  by  the 
practise  of  his  profession  in  California.  He  was> 
c.  B.-IL  IG 


242  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

moreover,  the  pioneer  judge  of  Oregon,  as  his  col- 
leagues, though  appointed,  had  not  yet  arrived.  The 
country  was  newly  settled,  and  its  condition  such  as 
had  never  before  been  experienced.  There  was  not 
in  all  the  territory  a  law  library,  and  apart  from  his 
own  small  collection,  there  were  probably  not  half  a 
dozen  law  books.  Thus  he  was  compelled  to  decide 
the  legal  questions  at  issue  as  they  came  before  him, 
without  the  aid  of  authorities  or  precedents.  Few  of 
his  decisions  were  ever  appealed  from,  largely  because 
such  a  course  would  be  useless,  and  because  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  principles  of  law  and  his  judicial  turn  of 
mind  inspired  a  belief  in  his  ability  and  the  desire  to 
do  justice. 

Toward  the  close  of  1848  General  Joseph  Lane, 
the  first  governor,  arrived  in  Oregon,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing March  entered  upon  his  duties  and  organized 
the  territorial  government,  Judge  Pratt  and  the  gov- 
ernor being  the  only  officials  appointed  by  the  presi- 
dent, who  were  as  yet  at  their  post.  Later  in 
the  same  month,  Chief-Justice  William  P.  Bryant 
reached  Oregon  City,  where  Pratt  and  the  gover- 
nor resided,  and  where,  through  a  special  act  passed 
by  the  first  legislative  assembly,  was  afterward  held 
the  first  session  of  the  supreme  court  of  Oregon,  and 
indeed  the  first  judicial  tribunal  legally  organized 
on  the  Pacific  coast.  At  that  session  judges  Bryant 
and  Pratt  were  its  only  members,  and  on  the  meeting 
of  the  first  legislature  the  latter  administered  the  oath 
of  office  to  its  members,  and  helped  to  set  in  motion 
the  machinery  of  government. 

Within  a  few  months  the  chief-justice  tendered  his 
resignation  on  account  of  ill  health,  returned  to  Indi- 
ana, his  native  state,  where  soon  afterward  occurred 
his  decease.  Meanwhile  Peter  H.  Burnett,  who  had 
been  appointed  associate  judge,  declined  to  accept  the 
position,  having  obtained  more  lucrative  employment 
in  California.  Thus  for  nearly  two  years,  until  the 
arrival  of  their  successors,  the  powers  and  duties  of 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  243 

the  judiciary  were  practically  vested  in  and  solely 
exercised  by  Judge  Pratt,  who,  during  that  period, 
not  only  held  all  the  terms  of  court  in  his  own  dis- 
trict, but  also  several  of  those  that  should  have  been 
held  by  the  chief -justice,  and  meanwhile  organized 
the  circuit  and  district  courts  in  most  of  the  counties 
of  Oregon. 

O 

During  this  interval  he  tried  many  important  cases, 
both  civil  and  criminal.  Among  them  was  the  famous 
trial  at  Oregon  City,  in  May  1850,  of  five  of  the  Ind- 
ian chiefs  implicated  in  the  Whitman  massacre.  By 
one  of  their  counsel,  Knitzing  Pritchette,  who  was 
also  territorial  secretary,  a  special  plea  was  entered 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  on  the  ground  that  at 
the  date  of  the  massacre  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
had  not  been  extended  over  Oregon ;  and  further,  that 
the  killing  had  occurred  before  the  organization  of  the 
territory,  or  of  any  tribunal  having  jurisdiction  to  try 
the  offence,  the  present  one  having  been  created  by 
the  organic  act  of  August  14,  1848,  a  date  ulterior  to 
that  of  the  massacre.  The  court  ruled,  however,  that 
under  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  congress  dated 
June  30,  1834,  and  other  United  States  laws  framed 
for  the  purpose  of  promoting  trade  and  intercourse 
with  the  Indian  tribes,  and  preserving  peace  on  the 
frontiers,  declaring  all  of  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  not  within  the  bor- 
ders of  any  state  to  be  within  the  Indian  country, 
Oregon  must  be  regarded  at  the  date  of  the  massacre, 
November  1847,  as  Indian  territory.  Moreover,  as 
the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  in  1846  had  ceded  to 
the  United  States  all  of  Oregon  south  of  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel,  it  followed  that  under  the  provisions 
of  the  United  States  laws  in  force  in  the  ceded  Indian 
territory,  crimes  committed  therein  were  punishable 
by  the  proper  United  States  tribunal,  whether  estab- 
lished before  or  after  the  offence.  The  facts  alleged 
in  the  indictment  were  sufficient  to  show  that  a  crime 
had  been  committed  under  the  laws  in  force  at  the 


244  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA, 

place  of  its  commission ;  and  the  subsequent  creation 
of  a  court  in  which   the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the 
defendants  could  be  determined  was  immaterial,  and 
could  not  deprive  it  of  jurisdiction.     Such  legislation 
was  not  in  its  purpose  or  effects  to  make  an  act  a 
crime  which  at  the  time  of  its  commission  was  inno- 
cent, but  simply  remedial,  to  enable  a  previously  com- 
mitted offence  to  be  punished.     Exception  was  taken  to 
this  ruling,  the  trial  proceeded,  and  the  men  were  con- 
victed, and  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  the  day  appointed 
for  the  execution  being  the  3d  of  June.     Between  the 
time  of  their  conviction  and  the  date  fixed  for  execu- 
tion the  governor  was  absent  from  Oregon  City,  and, 
as  was  rumored,  visited  the   mines  near  Yreka,  in 
northern  California.    Thereupon  Secretary  Pritchette, 
whose  intemperate  habits  too  often  clouded  his  better 
judgment,  announced  that,  as  acting  governor  under 
the  provisions  of  the  organic  act,  he  would  grant  a 
reprieve,  pending  an  appeal  to  the  supreme  court  at 
Washington.      On    this    announcement    the    utmost 
exasperation   prevailed  among   the   people,  who  had 
assembled  from  all  the  country  around  to  witness  the 
execution.     There  were  as  yet  no  jails  in  the  territory, 
and  the  convicted  chiefs  were  kept  under  guard  on  an 
adjacent   island,  the   bridge   connecting   it   with   the 
mainland   being  held   by  a  detachment  of  riflemen. 
It  was  feared  that  they  might  escape  if  the  secretary 
carried  out  his  intention,  and  the  greatest  indignation 
was  expressed  at  the  mere  suggestion  of  such  a  possi- 
bility.     In  the  midst  of  the  excitement  the  United 
States  marshal  called  on  Judge  Pratt  for  instructions 
as  to  the  course  he  should  take  in  case  of  the  secre- 
tary's interference.      The  judge  promptly  answered, 
"That  as  there  was  no  official  evidence  of  the  gover- 
nor's absence  from  the  territory,  all  proceedings  on  the 
part  of  Secretary  Pritchette  should  be  disregarded." 
On  hearing  this  the  acting  governor  abstained  from 
taking  further  measures;  the  execution  took  place, 
and  the  popular  agitation  at  once  subsided. 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  245 

During  the  trial,  at  which  from  four  to  five  hun- 
dred spectators  were  present,  watching  the  proceedings 
with  intense  anxiety,  there  prevailed  all  the  decorum 
and  solemnity  of  a  religious  service ;  and  yet  no  one, 
save  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  condition  of 
affairs  and  the  tone  of  public  sentiment  then  prevail- 
ing, can  realize  the  interest  displayed  by  the  entire 
community  on  this  memorable  occasion.  The  possi- 
bility that  the  assassins  might  escape  through  some 
technicality  was  sufficient  to  arouse  a  cry  of  vengeance 
throughout  the  land.  Had  they  been  discharged 
from  custody,  or  even  had  their  execution  been  post- 
poned, they  would  probably  have  been  hanged,  or 
more  likely  torn  to  pieces  by  an  infuriated  populace. 
Then  would  have  followed,  by  way  of  retribution,  a 
massacre  by  the  Indians  of  many  of  the  settlers  and 
their  families  throughout  the  Willamette  valley,  and 
the  scenes  that  were  likely  to  ensue  are  beyond  the 
power  of  language  to  describe.  Through  the  firm 
attitude  of  Judge  Pratt  in  this  trying  crisis,  his  cool- 
ness and  determination,  and  his  quick  and  clear  grasp 
of  the  situation,  such  a  catastrophe  was  averted.  In 
this,  as  in  other  instances,  it  was  conceded  that  he 
possessed  in  a  marked  degree  the  qualities  needed  to 
uphold  and  enforce  the  administration  of  justice  among 
a  border  community,  unaccustomed  to  the  restraints 
of  society  and  statutory  law.  Indeed,  throughout 
his  entire  judicial  career,  his  position  \vas  firm,  digni- 
fied, and  fearless,  and  his  entire  course  of  action  was 
not  only  commended  by  the  people,  but  emphatically 
approved  by  the  government. 

In  those  pioneer  days  the  administration  of  justice 
in  Oregon  was  marked  by  many  peculiarities.  As  an 
instance  may  be  mentioned  a  trial  at  Astoria  of  a  man 
named  McGunnigle,  who  had  been  indicted  by  the 
grand  jury  for  selling  liquor  to  Indians.  After  being 
convicted  and  sentenced  by  Judge  Pratt  to  pay  a  fine 
of  $500,  and  in  default  committed  to  the  custody  of 
the  United  States  marshal,  it  was  soon  afterward 


246  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

reported  that  the  prisoner  had  made  his  escape.  Now 
it  chanced  that  both  the  prisoner  and  the  marshal 
lived  and  cohabited  with  Indian  women,  and  were  the 
fathers  of  several  half-breed  children.  This  circum- 
stance, coupled  with  the  speedy  escape  of  McGunni- 
gle,  aroused  the  judge's  suspicions,  and,  as  the  event 
proved,  not  without  reason.  While,  during  the  after- 
noon recess  of  the  court,  he  was  strolling  through  the 
ed^e  of  the  woods  on  the  bank  of  the  Columbia,  he 

O 

heard  a  rustling  in  the  brush  near  by,  and  looking  in 
that  direction,  observed  two  men  cautiously  making 
their  way  to  the  river  bank,  where  a  canoe  awaited 
their  arrival.  One  of  the  men  was  McGunnigle, 
and  the  other  the  foreman  of  the  grand  jury  which 
had  found  the  indictment.  The  judge  hailed  them 
instantly  and  ordered  them  to  stop ;  whereupon  the 
grand  juror  took  to  the  brushwood,  and  McGunnigle, 
deeming  discretion  the  better  part  of  valor,  meekly 
surrendered,  and  returning  with  the  judge  to  the 
court-room,  was  remanded  into  custody  until  he  had 
paid  his  fine. 

By  Judge  Pratt  was  held  at  Portland  in  1849  the 
first  court  of  admiralty  within  the  present  limits  of 
Oregon  and  California,  and  during  its  session  the 
French  barque  L'Etoile  du  Matin,  having  been  libeled, 
was  condemned  and  ordered  to  be  sold.  Congress 
having  conferred  on  the  judges  of  the  United  States 
supreme  court  of  Oregon  admiralty  jurisdiction  in 
California,  in  the  winter  of  1849—50,  by  request  of 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  he  consulted  with  the 
collector  of  customs  in  San  Francisco  as  to  the 
frequent  violation  of  the  revenue  laws,  and  there,  also, 
assisted  in  the  adjustment  of  several  admiralty  cases. 

In  August  1850  John  P.  Gains,  who  was  the  newly 
appointed  governor,  arrived  in  Oregon,  and  with  him 
Judge  William  Strong,  the  successor  of  Burnett  for 
the  third  district;  Thomas  Nelson,  the  chief -justice, 
being  delayed  until  April  1851.  Soon  afterward 
began  the  famous  "location  controversy"  of  1851-2, 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  247 

the  matter  at  issue  being  the  selection  of  the  capital, 
a  question  which  caused  intense  excitement  through- 
out the  territory.  From  the  party  which  vindicated 
the  rights  of  the  people  during  this  memorable  strug- 
gle, were  early  chosen  the  political  leaders  of  Oregon; 
and  to  Judge  Pratt,  on  whom  largely  rested,  as  the 
sequel  disclosed,  the  determination  of  the  legal  ques- 
tions involved,  was  accorded  by  the  consent  of  all 
the  credit  of  coming  boldly  forward  as  the  people's 
champion.  But  to  explain  clearly  the  nature  and 
origin  of  this  dispute  a  brief  digression  will  be  neces- 
sary. 

In   1844   it  was  enacted  by  the   then    provisional 
legislature    of  Oregon,    that   the    statutes    of   Iowa, 

O  O 

passed  at  the  first  session  of  its  legislature  in  1838  as 
amended  in  1843,  together  with  the  common  law  of 
England  and  the  principles  of  equity,  should  become 
the  laws  of  the  territory,  so  far  as  the  former  were 
compatible  with  the  conditions  and  circumstances  of 
the  country.  Of  the  revised  statutes  of  Iowa,  sev- 
eral copies  had  been  brought  into  the  country  by  the 
immigrants  of  1844-5;  and  at  the  first  session  of  the 
territorial  legislature  held  in  1849  an  act  was  passed 
whereby  seventy-two  of  these  Iowa  statutes,  after- 
ward published  in  the  form  of  "blue  books,"  were 
declared  to  be  the  laws  of  Oregon. 

In  the  following  year  the  latter  territorial  act  was 
publicly  declared  by  the  then  United  States  district 
attorney,  Amory  Holbrook,  to  be  void,  on  the  ground 
that  it  conflicted  with  a  clause  in  the  organic  act 
which  provided  that,  "to  avoid  improper  influences 
which  may  result  from  intermixing  in  one  and  the 
same  act,  such  things  as  have  no  proper  relation  to 
each  other,  every  law  shall  embrace  but  one  subject, 
and  that  shall  be  expressed  in  the  title."  By  Judge 
Pratt,  while  he  was  the  only  judge  in  the  territory, 
no  attention  was  paid  to  Holbrook's  dictum;  but  by 
the  new  officials  a  different  opinion  was  held,  and 
during  the  next  session  of  the  legislature,  which  was 


248  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

composed  largely  of  democrats,  a  fierce  antagonism 
between  its  members  and  the  newcomers,  was  devel- 
oped. On  the  1st  of  February  1851  an  act  was 
passed  by  that  body  to  provide  for  a  selection  of  sites 
for  the  public  buildings  of  the  territory,  and  the  seat 
of  government  was  located  at  Salem,  with  the  peni- 
tentiary at  Portland  and  the  university  at  Corvallis. 
Two  days  afterward  the  governor  forwarded  a  mes- 
sage declaring  the  act  invalid  on  the  ground  that  it 
embraced  more  than  one  subject,  and  was  obnoxious 
to  the  inhibitions  of  the  organic  act.  He  must  there- 
fore refuse  to  sanction  the  expenditure  of  the  money 
appropriated  for  the  erection  of  public  buildings. 

Although  the  governor  did  not  possess  the  veto 
power,  his  decision  had  virtually  the  effect  of  a  veto, 
and  was  deeply  resented  by  a  majority  not  ouly  of 
the  members  of  the  legislature  but  of  the  constituen- 
cies which  they  represented.  Moreover,  it  was  gen- 
erally believed  that  his  interference  was  caused,  not 
on  the  ground  alleged,  but  by  his  reluctance  to 
abandon  Oregon  City,  where  he  was  already  com- 
fortable quartered,  for  the  remote  village  of  Salem. 
Before  the  next  session  of  the  legislature  the  subject 
was  widely  discussed,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that 
a  majority  of  the  members  would  assemble  at  Salem, 
which  was  then  much  nearer  the  centre  of  population 
than  Oregon  City ;  for  at  that  date  nine-tenths  of  the 
entire  inhabitants  were  settled  in  the  Willamette  val- 
ley. It  was  also  understood  that  judges  Nelson  and 
Strong,  with  most  of  the  federal  officials,  including 
the  governor,  would  assume  the  location  act  to  be 
invalid  in  advance  of  its  adjudication,  regard  Oregon 
City  as  the  seat  of  government,  and  officially  act 
accordingly. 

Judge  Pratt  was  the  only  one  who  expressed  a 
contrary  view,  insisting  that  the  act  was  presumptively 
valid,  and  should  officially  be  so  treated  until  it  was 
otherwise  adjudged.  By  him  it  was  urged  that  the 
location  of  the  seat  of  government  was  exclusively  in 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  249 

the  hands  of  the  legislative  assembly,  as  declared  in 
section  15  of  the  organic    act,  which  provided  that 
"the  legislative  assembly  of  the  territory  of  Oregon 
shall  hold  its  first  session  at  such  time  and  place  in 
said  territory  as  the  governor  thereof  shall  appoint 
and  direct ;  and  at  said  first  session,  or  as  soon  there- 
after as  they   shall   deem   expedient,  the  legislative 
assembly  shall   proceed    to   locate   and  establish  the 
seat  of  government  for  said  territory,  at  such  place  as 
they  may  deem    eligible."     Thus   it  was  clear  that, 
while  the  governor  could  convene  the  first  session  of 
that   body  at  whatever   place   he  chose,   as   he   had 
already  done,  he  had  no  authority  thereafter  in  locat- 
ing the  territorial  capital.      The  three  departments  of 
government,  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive,  were 
entirely  distinct  and  independent  of  each  other,  and 
each  must  look  for  the  measure  of  its  respective  pow- 
ers to  the  express  provisions  of  the  organic  law.    Each 
one,  while  sovereign  within  its  own  province,  must 
keep  within  its  proper  sphere,  and  in  case  of  a  conflict 
between  them,  whether  caused  by  a  disregard  of  the 
organic  law  or  through  usurpation  by  one  of  authority 
belonging   to  another,   the  rightful   remedy  was  not 
vested  in  the  executive,  but  in  the   judicial  power, 
when  acting  as  a  court  at  a  legal  time  and  place.    The 
organic  law  was  the  basis  of  all  legislative  and  execu- 
tive powers,  and  if  its  imperative  provisions  were  dis- 
regarded in  any  act  of  the  legislature,  such  act  could 
and  would    be    determined   to   be   null  and  void  on 
adjudication.     But  because  some  particular  law  was 
deemed  null  and  void  by  one  or  more  of  the  judges, 
who  did  not  constitute  a  tribunal  with  legal  authority 
to  pass  upon  it,  such  opinion  did  not  make  it  so,  for 
only  through  the  judgment  of  a  competent  court  could 
its  nullity  be  adjudged. 

Into  this  controversy  all  the  judges  were  drawn, 
and  from  it  arose  many  complications,  through  the 
interference  by  judges  Strong  and  Nelson  with  the 
process  and  judicial  powers  of  Judge  Pratt,  so  that 


250  GO  VERNMENT-  CALIFORNIA. 

finally  it  became  almost  impossible  to  maintain  the 
rightful  authority  of  either  of  the  courts  or  their 
judges.  On  the  1st  of  December  1851  judges  Strong 
and  Nelson  assumed  to  open  and  hold  a  term  of  the 
supreme  court  at  Oregon  City,  in  advance  of  any 
adjudication  of  the  invalidity  of  the  location  act, 
which  with  other  laws  required  such  session  to  be 
held  at  Salem,  the  then  territorial  capital.  At  the 
same  time  the  members  of  the  legislature,  with  five 
exceptions,  under  the  presumption  of  the  validity  of 
the  location  law,  opened  their  session  at  Salem,  and 
soon  afterward,  in  compliance  with  a  legislative  reso- 
lution and  request,  Judge  Pratt  delivered  an  official 
opinion  on  the  legality  of  the  location  act,  in  which 
he  ably  sustained  it,  declaring  that  the  place  of  their 
then  session  was  legal,  and  that  all  acts  which  might 
be  passed,  if  in  accordance  with  the  organic  law, 
would  be  valid  so  far  as  the  place  of  enactment  was 
involved,  because  the  act  locating  the  territorial  seat 
of  government  was  presumptively  valid ;  that  it  was 
not  void,  and  could  be  only  so  treated  after  being 
legally  so  adjudged,  which  had  not  been  done.  By 
the  other  judges  a  different  opinion  was,  of  course, 
expressed,  and  meanwhile  the  governor  gave  notice 
that  he  would  pay  no  attention  to  the  enactments 
passed  by  the  "  Salem  legislature."  Thus  a  state  of 
confusion  and  uncertainty  prevailed  throughout  the 
territory,  and  it  was  generally  feared  that  scenes  of 
disorder  and  lawlessness  would  ensue. 

In  order  to  prevent  judicial  interference  with  the 
measures  of  the  legislature,  an  act  was  passed  limiting 
Judge  Nelson's  district  to  the  county  of  Clackamas, 
and  so  appointing  the  several  terms  of  the  district 
courts  and  the  judges  to  hold  them,  in  all  the  coun- 
ties south  of  the  Columbia  river  except  Clackamas, 
that  all  of  them  came  within  Judge  Pratt's  district. 
Judge  Strong's  district,  however,  was  left  north  of 
the  Columbia.  When,  in  disregard  of  this  act,  Judge 
Nelson  afterward  repaired  to  Salem,  in  Judge  Pratt's 


ORVILLE   C.  PRATT.  2ol 

new  district,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  court  in  Marion 
county,  he  was  met  by  a  committee  of  its  citizens, 
who  informed  him  that  a  session  had  just  been  holden 
by  Judge  Pratt,  in  conformity  with  law,  and  that  if 
he  disregarded  it,  the  town  would  neither  afford  him 

O 

food  nor  shelter.  Thereupon  the  chief-justice  promptly 
left,  and  returned  to  Oregon  City. 

Soon  afterward  a  memorial  to  congress  was  passed 
by  the  legislative  assembly,  expressing  in  the  strong- 
est terms  the  popular  view  of  the  controversy,  earn- 
estly deprecating  the  appointment  of  strangers  and 
non-residents  to  federal  offices,  and  requesting  that 
the  people  of  the  territory  be  allowed  to  designate  by 
popular  vote,  and  from  the  residents  of  Oregon,  their 
governor,  secretary,  and  judges.  This  memorial  was 
approved  by  the  judgment  of  the  people,  and  did 
much  to  influence  them  against  "imported  federal 
officials,"  as  the  men  were  termed  who  had  opposed 
the  location  act.  By  almost  the  entire  community 
this  act  was  upheld,  not  only  on  legal  but  local  and 
personal  grounds ;  and,  in  fact,  it  became  practically 
valid  through  the  sheer  force  of  public  opinion,  largely 
created,  as  was  conceded  at  the  time,  by  the  ability, 
tact,  and  reputation  of  Judge  Pratt.  Finally,  on  the 
4th  of  May  1852,  congress  removed  all  doubts  on  the 
subject  by  passing  almost  unanimously  an  act  approv- 
ing and  ratifying  the  legislative  location  of  the  terri- 
torial capital  at  Salem,  together  with  the  subsequent 
session  of  the  legislature  there,  and  the  laws  enacted 
by  it.  Soon  afterward  judges  Nelson  and  Strong 
were  removed  from  office  by  the  president,  and  to 
Judge  Pratt,  who  was  the  champion  of  the  legislature 
and  of  the  location  act,  and  although  the  youngest  of 
the  officials  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  contest, 
was  awarded  the  palm  of  victory. 

Thus  we  have  traced  the  leading  incidents  in  Pratt's 
official  career  in  Oregon,  from  the  time  when  the 
first  court  established  in  that  territory,  or  even  en 
the  Pacific  coast,  under  the  authority  of  the  United 


254  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

vain  their  entreaty,  as  well  as  numerous  promises  of 
many  of  the  most  influential  men  to  do  all  in  their 
power  to  secure  his  election  as  United  States  senator 
when  the  territory  should  be  admitted  into  the  union. 
In  June  1856  he  removed  to  San  Francisco,  where 
he  formed  a  partnership  for  three  years  with  Alex- 
ander Campbell,  senior,  who  had  been  a  leading  prac- 
titioner in  the  courts  of  Oregon  over  which  Pratt 

O 

had  presided.  The  firm  soon  acquired  an  extensive 
and  lucrative  practice,  more  especially  in  land  cases, 
for  the  conduct  of  which,  as  will  presently  appear, 
one  of  its  members  was  especially  qualified. 

At  the  end  of  the  copartnership  the  connection  was 
dissolved,  and  Mr  Pratt  was  afterward  elected  judge 
of  the  twelfth  judicial  district  court  for  the  city 
and  county  of  San  Francisco  and  the  county  of  San 
Mateo,  During  his  six  years'  tenure  of  office  he  was 
called  upon  to  decide  a  large  number  of  important 
cases,  involving  great  and  varied  interests;  and  in  his 
decisions  litigants  generally  acquiesced,  knowing  that 
his  determinations  were  founded  on  a  careful  and  con- 
scientious study  and  interpretation  of  the  law,  while 
his  reputation  for  integrity  and  scrupulous  regard  for 
justice  was  beyond  dispute.  Perhaps  his  ability  was 
displayed  to  the  best  advantage  in  the  decision  of 
land  cases,  in  which  his  powers  of  analysis  and  eluci- 
dation in  weighing  and  applying  every  point  of  the 
law  and  evidence  appropriately,  thereby  dispelling 
the  vague  uncertainty  then  attached  to  most  land 
titles,  caused  his  decisions  to  be  regarded  by  many  as 
classics  of  the  law  in  such  cases. 

Of  these  decisions  one  or  two  instances  must  suffice. 
In  the  case  of  Mayo  vs.  Andrews  et  al.,  the  action 
being  to  recover  certain  lots  in  Sacramento  city,  and 
the  source  of  title  through  which  both  parties  claimed 
being  two  grants  made  to  John  A.  S utter  by  the 
Mexican  government,  and  afterwards  confirmed  by 
United  States  patent,  the  questions  decided  by  him 
involved  and  settled  the  validity  of  the  gutter  title 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  255 

to  more  than  a  thousand  homes  in  the  city  of  Sacra- 
mento and  its  vicinity.  It  was  rendered  on  the  14th 
of  June  1869,  and  was  regarded  by  the  legal  profes- 
sion and  the  general  public  as  having  removed  a  cloud 
which  had  long  obscured  and  impaired  Sacramento 
titles,  to  the  great  injury  of  owners.  Its  remarkable 
clearness  of  statement  and  cogency  of  reasoning  were 
observed  and  conceded  by  all  interested.  As  to  the 
description  or  location  of  the  granted  lands — one  of 
the  main  points  at  issue — he  thus  expressed  himself: 
"  That  which  is  particularly  referred  to  and  set  forth 
as  a  description  of  lands  in  a  grant  or  patent  always 
controls;  and  if  any  repugnance  is  found  between  a 
general  description  and  a  particular  one,  the  former 
must  yield  to  the  latter,  .  .  This  particular  descrip- 
tion, although  found  in  documents  referred  to  and 
distinct  from  the  grant  itself,  nevertheless  forms  a 
part  of  it,  and  must  be  looked  to  for  knowledge  to 
determine  what  was  intended  to  be  conveyed." 

After  defining  the  limits  of  the  grant,  he  continues : 
"  In  construing  a  description  of  land  delineated  on  a 
plan  or  map,  which  has  marked  thereon  fixed  and 
determined  objects,  together  with  indicated  courses 
and  distances,  determinable  only  by  measurement  or 
mathematical  calculation,  it  is  obvious  that  what  is 
fixed  and  determined  must  control  that  which,  not 
being  settled,  remains  indeterminate.  In  other  words, 
visible  objects  on  lands,  when  named  or  delineated  as 
calls  in  descriptions  thereof,  must  of  necessity  control 
all  supposed  points,  lines,  courses,  and  distances.  Of 
such  are  indicated  parallels  of  latitude,  for  being,  as 
they  are,  imaginary,  and  only  accurately  determinable 
as  distances  from  the  equatorial  line  as  their  base  by 
correct  astronomical  observations  and  computation  of 
numbers,  they  may  or  may  riot  be  properly  delineated 
on  a  plan  or  map  in  any  given  case,  where  referred  to 
as  means  to  admeasure  any  portion  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face. Therefore,  whether  such  lines  so  kid  down  are 
true  or  otherwise  is  entirely  immaterial,  provided 


256  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

always  that  the  fixed  calls  or  monuments  in  a  descrip- 
tion are  certain  and  sufficient  to  locate  the  described 
lands,  independently  of  the  named  and  supposed  lines 
of  latitude."  Thus  clearly  did  the  judge  lay  down 
principles  which  set  at  rest  the  title  to  property  valued 
at  many  millions  of  dollars. 

In  the  case  of  W.  W.  Johnston  et  al.  vs.  The  Board 
of  Supervisors  of  San  Francisco,  the  proceedings  being 
in  equity,  he  rendered  a  most  important  decision  on 
pueblo  lands.  It  was  admitted  that  the  title  to  the 
lands  was  vested  in  the  municipal  corporation,  over 
the  affairs  of  which  the  defendants  exercised  certain 
limited  powers,  and  the  questions  mainly  to  be  deter- 
mined were  whence  and  how  such  titles  became  so 
vested,  and  to  what  uses,  as  well  as  where  the  power 
was  then  lodged,  and  the  means  whereby  it  could  be 
rendered  effectual,  After  tracing  the  origin  of  these 
titles  to  its  source,  under  the  Spanish  regime,  together 
with  the  purposes  for  which  such  lands  were  set  apart, 
or  in  a  word,  the  pueblo  system,  as  it  existed  in  pas- 
toral California,  the  judge  said  :  "The  system  did  not 
contemplate,  because  not  necessary  to  accomplish  its 
objects,  that  the  fee  or  absolute  title  to  any  part  of 
such  lands  should  ever  be  vested  in  the  pueblo,  or 
town,  in  its  municipal  or  corporate  character;  but  it 
was  intended  by  the  laws  on  that  subject  that  the 
proper  authorities  of  the  town  should  be  clothed  with 
the  power,  in  the  nature  of  an  agency  from  the  sov- 
ereign power  of  the  country,  on  proper  application,  to 
be  made  by  such  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  as 
wanted  them,  to  grant  house  lots,  as  well  as  sowing 
or  planting  lots,  within  the  proper  limits,  in  private 
proprietorship,  if  such  applicants  should  be  found  to 
be  suitable  persons,  and  in  need  of  what  was  solicited. 
Like  powers  of  alienation  were  also  retained,  and  often 
exercised  over  the  granting  of  house  lots  and  planting 
grounds  by  the  national  sovereign,  and  by  such  others 
to  whom  such  sovereign  chose  to  delegate  the  author- 
ity. ,  f  Power,  however,  to  alienate  either  the  lands 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  257 

designed  for  municipal  revenue,  or  the  pleasure 
grounds  of  the  town,  or  the  commons  for  pasturage 
by  its  inhabitants,  never  was  conferred  upon  the 
authorities  of  the  pueblo." 

After  some  further  comments  he  continued :  "From 
all  tliis  it  manifestly  results  that  the  absolute  title  or 
fee,  with  the  exclusive  power  of  alienation,  in  and  to 
all  the  ungranted  lands  embraced  within  the  claimed 
limits  of  the  pueblo  of  Yerba  Buena  immediately  pre- 
vious to  the  treaty  of  cession  of  May  31, 1848,  remained 
and  was  in  the  Mexican  nation.  Its  rightful  succes- 
sor in  that  behalf,  after  such  treaty,  became  and  was 
the  United  States,  because  the  latter  succeeded  alike 
to  the  national  sovereignty  in  California  as  also  to 
the  fee  of  all  lands  therein,  together  with  the  power 
of  disposition  which  was  at  that  date  vested  in  its 
predecessor."  He  then  referred  to  the  acts  of  con- 
gress, passed  in  1864  and  1866,  whereby  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  divested  itself  of  the  legal 
title  to  all  the  lands  in  question  so  derived  from  Mex- 
ico. "  In  virtue  of  them,"  he  said,  "all  the  right,  title, 
and  interest  of  the  United  States  passed  to  the  city 
for  the  use  and  upon  the  trusts  in  each  of  them 
respectively  named.  No  further  action  by  the  gov- 
ernment or  its  officers  in  such  case  was  necessary  to 
pass  the  title,  since  such  congressional  grants  passed 
it  as  completely  as  a  United  States  patent." 

In  the  libel  suit  of  Downs  vs.  Fitch,  and  in  McCarty 
vs.  Hayes,  actions  for  slander,  the  judge  displayed  in 
his  charges  to  the  jury  a  clear  and  comprehensive 
grasp  of  the  law  of  libel  as  well  as  of  slander,  and  of 
the  legal  questions  involved.  In  the  case  of  Charlotte 
L.  Brown  vs.  the  Omnibus  Railroad  company,  he  de- 
livered a  most  able  and  elaborate  decision,  explain- 
ing the  principles  of  the  common  law,  which  gives  to 
colored  persons  the  same  right  to  avail  themselves  of 
public  conveyances  as  is  granted  to  others.  This 
decision  attracted  no  little  attention  throughout  the 
eastern  states,  was  universally  approved  by  the  more 


C.  B.— II.     11 


258  GOVERNMENT—CALIFORNIA. 

enlightened  and  progressive  journals,  and  was  made 
the  subject  of  special  reference,  with  complimentary 
allusions,  by  Charles  Sumner  on  the  floor  of  the 
United  States  senate. 

While  on  the  bench  Judge  Pratt's  demeanor  was 
marked  by  a  firm  arid  quiet  dignity,  that  repelled  all 
attempts  at  levity  or  undue  familiarity ;  at  the  same 
time  he  won  and  retained  the  respect  and  good-will 
of  the  legal  fraternity.  Among  his  other  qualifica- 
tions was  the  ability  to  turn  in  a  moment  to  any  page 
of  the  testimony  while  trying  a  case,  or  even  while 
rendering  an  oral  decision,  when  any  question  of  fact 
was  disputed  by  counsel;  and  it  came  to  be  generally 
conceded  that  the  judge's  statement  of  the  testimony 
could  be  fully  relied  upon.  Whenever  it  happened 
that  counsel  became  restless  on  hearing  that  the  case 
was  being  decided  against  him,  and  interrupted  the 
judge  by  calling  his  attention  to  a  supposed  mistake 
in  the  citation  of  facts,  the  latter  would  quietly  remark : 
"  The  court  reporter  will  please  turn  to  his  notes  and 
read  the  portion  in  dispute ; "  and  when  that  was  done, 
it  was  found  that  the  judge's  statement  was  absolutely 
correct.  This  became  so  fully  recognized  among  those 
whose  practice  lay  in  his  court  that  when  some  inex- 
perienced attorney  arose,  to  protect,  as  he  thought, 
the  interests  of  his  client,  the  bar  would  quietly  smile, 
in  anticipation  of  the  discomfiture  which  was  to  follow. 
But  perhaps  that  which  won  more  than  all  else  the 
respect  and  admiration  of  its  members  was  the  ease 
with  which  he  reached  the  very  pith  and  marrow  of 
the  subject-matter  before  him,  expressing  his  views 
in  clear,  terse,  and  comprehensive  language,  dissecting 
the  case,  and  presenting  each  portion  of  it  in  the 
clearest  light,  and  thus  giving  form  and  precision  to 
what  was  before  a  collection  of  disjointed  fragments. 

While  as  judge  and  jurist  Pratt  won  for  him- 
self fair  distinction  throughout  the  Pacific  coast, 
he  has  also  manifested  in  his  business  transactions 
and  in  his  choice  of  investments  qualities  of  no 


ORVILLE   C.  PRATT.  259 

common  order.  Perhaps  one  of  the  best  instances  of 
his  ability  in  this  direction  was  displayed  during  his 
earlier  career  in  Oregon,  when,  by  a  single  well-timed 
stroke,  he  cleared  the  sum  of  $40,000,  and  thus  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  ample  fortune  which  he  after- 
ward accumulated.  During  a  trip  from  Portland  to 
San  Francisco  in  company  with  Captain  Crosby,  it 
chanced  that  a  discussion  arose  as  to  what  would  be 
the  probable  price  of  lumber  on  their  arrival  in  the 
latter  city.  Pratt  suggested  that  a  cargo  should 
be  worth  at  least  twenty-five  dollars  a  thousand.  "I 
wish  you  would  guarantee  me  that  figure,"  replied  his 
companion.  "Well,"  rejoined  the  other,  " there  is  no 
reason  why  I  should  guarantee  you  an}7thing,  but  it 
seems  to  me — and  here  he  gave  his  reasons — that  lum- 
ber ought  to  be  worth  there  when  we  arrive  fully 
twenty-five  dollars  a  thousand."  After  some  further 
conversation  Crosby  asked  whether  he  would  purchase 
from  him  the  cargo  on  board  when  laid  down  in  San 
Francisco  at  twenty  dollars  a  thousand.  "  Yes,"  said 
Judge  Pratt ;  and  thereupon  a  contract  to  that  effect 
was  drawn  up  and  signed  by  both  parties.  On  reach- 
ing her  destination  the  vessel  was  boarded  by  Captain 
Folsom  and  W.  D.  M.  Howard,  the  former  of  whom, 
as  purchasing  agent  for  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, offered  him  $250  a  thousand  for  the  cargo.  It 
was  declined,  as  was  also  a  still  higher  offer  made  by 
Mr  Howard,  and  the  lumber  was  finally  sold  at  $400 
a  thousand. 

With  a  portion  of  the  profits  he  afterward  built  at 
Oregon  City,  in  partnership  with  one  McLelland,  a 
vessel  which  was  employed  in  the  lumber  trade,  one 
of  her  cargoes  selling  in  San  Francisco  for  $450  a 
thousand.  Another  craft  he  chartered  in  the  same 
city  at  an  early  date,  and  loading  her  with  cooking- 
stoves,  blankets,  and  boots  and  shoes,  he  sailed  for 
Portland,  where,  these  articles  being  scarce  and  in 
demand,  he  disposed  of  the  cargo  at  a  handsome 
profit.  Thus  he  took  advantage  of  opportunities  as 


260  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

they  occurred,  although  his  fortune  was  by  no  means 
of  sudden  growth,  nor  was  it  in  any  sense  gained  by 
the  hazard  of  speculation.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
acquired  by  judicious  investments,  and  by  years  of 
unremitting  attention  to  his  business  affairs,  while  at 
the  same  time  burdened  with  the  duties  of  his  arduous 
profession. 

Soon  after  his  removal  to  California,  he  invested 
$55,000  in  the  purchase  of  the  Aguas  Frias  rancho, 
consisting  of  six  square  leagues  of  rich  alluvial  lands 
in  Butte  and  Colusa  counties,  and  now  forming  a  most 
valuable  estate.  In  earlier  years  this  rancho  was 
devoted  principally  to  stock-raising,  but  later  was 
placed  under  cultivation,  mainly  of  wheat.  On  it  are 
nearly  one  hundred  miles  of  fence,  with  suitable  resi- 
dences and  barns  for  tenants,  and  other  improvements. 
Most  of  the  property  still  remains  in  possession  of  the 
present  or  former  members  of  his  family,  and  yields 
a  liberal  revenue.  When  Pratt  took  possession  in 
1859  there  were  on  the  tract  many  settlers  from  the 
western  states,  where  holdings  were  usually  limited 
to  160  acres.  By  them  the  owners  of  large  Mexi- 
can grants  were  regarded  as  usurpers  and  swindlers, 
and  they  were  apt  to  settle  upon  any  land  which  they 
found  vacant,  with  little  regard  to  its  real  ownership. 
Hence  arose  serious  difficulties,  and  not  unfrequently 
bloodshed.  But  through  the  kindly  treatment  and 
consideration  which  he  extended  to  the  squatters  no 
such  trouble  occurred  on  Judge  Pratt's  domain,  and 
finally  his  title  and  right  of  possession  were  conceded 
without  dispute. 

In  other  portions  of  California,  and  especially  in 
San  Francisco,  Pratt  also  made  considerable  invest- 
ments in  real  estate,  among  them  being  the  loca- 
tion on  which  stands  his  residence  on  the  south- 
east corner  of  Jones  and  Sutter  streets.  Here,  with 
abundant  means  not  only  to  provide  bountifully  for 
those  who  are  bound  to  him  by  the  ties  of  marriage 
and  consanguinity,  but  also  to  indulge  the  generous 


ORVILLE  C.  PRATT.  261 

impulses  for  which  he  is  universally  noted,  he  lived 
surrounded  by  his  family,  his  home  being  embellished 
by  some  of  the  choicest  specimens  of  art,  and  his 
library  well  supplied  with  standard  works  of  literature. 

In  1877  Orville  Pratt  married  the  daughter  of  Dr 
Green,  a  former  New  York  physician,  a  woman  of 
refinement  and  culture,  amiable  and  sympathetic,  and 
of  whom  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  she  is  much  es- 
teemed in  the  Pacific  coast  metropolis,  as  well  as  in 
New  York  city,  where  she  was  born  and  reared.  In 
Orville  C.,  their  only  child,  are  reproduced  all  the 
physical  and  mental  characteristics  of  the  father,  and 
of  this  boy,  now  a  youth  of  some  six  summers,  the 
father  is  deservedly  proud.  In  the  society  of  his 
family  and  his  books  the  later  years  of  his  life  were 
passed,  undisturbed  by  the  cares  and  anxieties  of 
business  or  profession.  In  the  mean  time  he  made 
an  occasional  trip  to  Europe,  as,  like  all  other  men 
with  strong  powers  of  observation,  he  was  fond  of 
travel. 

In  politics  Judge  Pratt  was  a  persistent  and  zeal- 
ous democrat,  though  never  in  an  intense  partisan 
sense.  On  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  he  at  once 
declared  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  union, 
identifying  himself  with  the  Union  league,  and  con- 
tributing without  stint  to  the  sanitary  and  other 
funds. 

In  religion  he  respected  and  tolerated  all  Christian 
creeds.  A  life  member  of  the  Society  of  California 
Pioneers,  he  subscribed  liberally  and  without  distinc- 
tion to  many  social  and  charitable  organizations  which, 
as  he  considered,  tended  to  the  welfare  of  society.  But 
not  alone  on  these  was  his  bounty  bestowed.  Many 
were  the  instances,  especially  among  his  fellow-pio- 
neers, where  he  befriended  those  overtaken  by  age  or 
adversity,  though  none  are  probably  aware  of  it,  save 
the  recipients  of  his  charity. 

Up  to  his  seventy-second  year,  with  mind  and  body 
but  little  impaired  by  the  touch  of  time,  the  judge 


262  GOVERNMENT- CALIFORNIA. 

still  displayed  all  the  attributes  of  a  vigorous  and 
well-preserved  manhood.  Somewhat  above  medium 
height,  and  with  a  compact  and  well-developed  frame, 
broad-shouldered,  and  with  ample  girth  of  chest,  none 
but  those  who  knew  him  would  believe  that  he  ranked 
almost  among  our  septuagenarians.  His  upright  car- 
riage and  firm,  elastic  step  belonged  rather  to  a  man 
of  half  his  years.  In  his  regular  and  finely  chiselled 
features  were  portrayed  the  strength  of  will  and  firm- 
ness of  purpose,  the  intelligence  and  force  of  concen- 
tration, and,  in  a  word,  the  power  which  raised  him 
from  a  comparatively  obscure  position  in  liie  to  a 
foremost  place  in  the  community  of  which  he  was  so 
distinguished  a  member.  The  dignity  of  deportment 
which  he  displayed  on  the  bench  was  carried  into 
private  life,  though  without  a  trace  of  the  coldness 
and  austerity  which  too  often  characterize  our  success- 
ful men.  As  to  the  part  that  he  played  in  the  early 
history  of  Oregon  and  California,  the  reader  will 
judge  for  himself  from  the  biography  which  has  now 
been  laid  before  him.  It  is  of  such  biographies  that, 
in  its  truest  sense,  the  history  of  a  state  or  a  nation 
mainly  consists ;  for  apart  from  the  lives  of  our  great- 
est men  there  is  little  worthy  of  record.  On  the  roll 
of  Oregon's  pioneers  are  others  who  have  achieved 
the  highest  honors  on  the  bench,  at  the  bar,  in  the 
mart  of  commerce,  and  in  the  halls  of  legislation; 
but  there  are  none  whose  career  has  been  of  greater 
service  in  laying  broad  and  deep  the  foundation  on 
which  generations  yet  to  be  shall  rear  the  superstruc- 
ture of  a  great  and  flourishing  commonwealth. 

After  an  illness  of  a  fortnight,  Judge  Pratt  died 
at  San  Francisco,  October  24,  1891. 


CHAPTEK  VIII. 

LIFE  OF  JAMES  ANDREW  WAYMIRE. 

ANCESTRY  AND  PARENTAGE — MIGRATION  TO  OREGON  —  EARLY  CAREER  — 
MILITARY  RECORD — -REPORTING — LAW  PRACTISE  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO — 
SUPERIOR  COURT  JUDGE— THE  VETERANS'  HOME — WIFE  AND  CHILDREN 
— RESIDENCE  AT  ALAMEDA — TASTES  AND  PROCLIVITIES. 

As  a  man  thinketh,  so  is  he.  But  what  governs 
the  man's  thinking — his  education,  his  environment  ? 
To  some  extent,  it  must  be  admitted  ;  but,  notwith- 
standing, he  is  what  he  was  born,  not  what  he  was 
made.  Scientists  tell  us  his  traits  existed  in  his  very 
atoms— in  the  first  microscopic  cell  in  which  his  visi- 
ble being  began. 

James  Andrew  Way  mire  is  descended  from  sturdy 
old  John  Rudolph  Way  mire,  of  Saxe- Weimar,  an 
officer  of  rank  in  the  military  service  of  Germany, 
who  about  1732  emigrated  to  America  in  order  to 
enjoy  his  religious  opinions  without  interference  by 
church  or  state.  Landing  in  New  York,  he  finally 
settled  in  North  Carolina,  contributing  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  new  country  eight  boys  and  seven  girls. 
These  young  Waymires,  after  the  fashion  of  other 
colonist  families,  scattered  through  the  neighboring 
settlements,  some  of  them  finding  homes  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, but  more  of  them  in  Ohio,  near  the  present 
city  of  Dayton,  where  their  descendants  are  found 
in  large  numbers.  Stephen  K.  Waymire,  father  of 
James  A.  Waymire,  was  of  the  Ohio  branch  of  the 
family. 


264  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

The  maternal  grandfather  was  James  Gilmore,  a 
Virginian  of  Irish  extraction,  whose  father  fought  in 
the  revolutionary  war.  The  son  also  fought  under 
General  Jackson  at  New  Orleans.  He  married 
Mary  Petit,  of  a  French  Huguenot  family,  and  fol- 
lowed Daniel  Boone  into  that  beautiful  wilderness, 

Where  wild  Ohio's  mighty  flood 

Rolled  through  Kentucky 's  twilight  wood, 

which  became  the   dark   and    bloody  ground  where 
perished   many  brave  men  and  women.     But  James 
Gilmore  survived  the  pioneer  struggles,  and  afterward 
removed  to  the  frontier  of  Missouri,  where  he  owned 
a    farm    and    a    grist   mill   and  where   his  daughter 
Mahala  E.    Gilmore  met  and   married    Stephen   K. 
Waymire,  a  carpenter  and  farmer,  the  two  settling 
on    160    acres    on    the    Missouri    river,  where    later 
was    St    Joseph,    a    flourishing    city,    covering    the 
Waymire  acres  with  streets  of  solid  business  blocks- 
Here  James  A.  Waymire  was  born  December  9, 
1842.     It  happened  that  the  young  family,  with  their 
relatives  on  both  sides,  were  directly  in  the  path  of 
the  Oregon  pioneers,  who,  with  large  donations  of  land 
in  prospect,  were  marching  westward  annually  to  set- 
tle the  boundary  question  with  Great  Britain  by  act- 
ual occupation  of  the  Columbia  river,  and  to  found  an 
empire  with  a  water-front  toward  China.    Stephen  K. 
Waymire,  and  his  brothers  Frederick  and  John,  with 
their  several  families  joined  the  large  migration  of 
1845  ;  but  Stephen  was  destined  never  to  reach  far 
Oregon,  being  killed  by  a   fall  from  his  horse  soon 
after  crossing  the  Missouri  river,  his  widow  and  son 
returning  to  St  Joseph. 

However,  Jarnes  Gilmore,  the  father  of  the  widow, 
in  1852  followed  his  relatives  and  neighbors  to  the 
Pacific  slope,  bringing  with  him  his  daughter  and  her 
son,  together  with  a  large  family  of  sons  and  sons-in- 
law.  The  boy  enjoyed  the  journey,  and  although  but 
ten  years  of  age  kept  a  journal  of  its  events.  His 
grandfather  settled  in  the  Umpqua  valley,  near  Rose- 


JAMES  A.   WAYMIRE.  2G5 

burg,  with  others  of  the  immigration  of  that  year, 
which  being  of  an  intelligent  class,  soon  erected 
schools  and  churches.  Of  the  former  young  James 
was  a  constant  and  industrious  attendant,  and  the 
long  winter  evenings,  when  the  farm  "  chores"  were 
done,  were  spent  in  the  society  of  such  books  as 
Pluiarclis  Lives,  Pilgrims  Progress,  the  historical  works 
of  Hume,  Rollins,  and  Gibbon,  and  the  standard 
poets  and  essayists — often  read  late  at  night  by  the 
cheap  but  brilliant  light  of  blazing  pine  knots.  Nor 
was  this  studious  habit  simply  one  of  recreation. 
The  lad  read  with  map  and  note-book  at  his  elbow, 
thoroughly  digesting  what  he  intellectually  devoured. 
At  fourteen  years  of  age  he  wrote  quite  cleverly  both 
prose  and  verse,  and  being  ambitious,  w^as  unwilling 
any  longer  to  remain  dependent  upon  his  relatives  for 
maintenance. 

His  first  venture  as  a  bread-winner,  at  this  age, 
was  in  chopping  cord-wood,  and  although  not  large 
for  his  years,  at  fifteen  he  performed  the  labors  of 
a  man,  in  the  harvest  field,  or  at  making  rails. 
This  hard  work  did  not  interrupt  the  intellectual 
pursuits  which  were  the  delight  of  the  young  student, 
who  contrived  before  he  was  seventeen  to  acquire  a 
fair  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics. 
His  habit  of  note-taking  led  him  to  short-hand  writ- 

O 

ing,  in  which  he  became  an  expert.  In  the  mean  time 
he  had  acquired  some  personal  property,  which,  in 
consonance  with  his  taste,  included  a  horse  and  a 
gold  watch.  Before  he  was  eighteen  he  worked  as 
a  school  teacher  at  fifty  dollars  a  month,  "  boarding 
round." 

This  climax  to  youthful  aspiration  was  reached  in 
I860,  which  was  the  year  following  the  admission  of 
Oregon  to  the  union,  and  the  first  in  which  the  Ore- 
gon electors  could  vote  at  a  presidential  election.  For 
this  reason,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the  agitation  of 
the  question  of  more  slave  territory,  the  canvass  for 
presidential  candidates  was  unusually  warm.  Young 


266  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

Waymire's  uncle  Fred  was  known  as  the  war-horse  of 
democracy  in  the  webfoot  state,  and  the  family  gen- 
erally were  imbued  with  the  political  views  of  the 
men  who  had  fought  under  General  Jackson  at  New 
Orleans,  and  had  an  abiding  horror  of  a  "free  nig- 
ger." But  the  careful  student  had  read  history  to 
little  purpose  if  he  had  not  discovered  that  slavery 
benefited  neither  master  nor  servant ;  and,  although 
not  old  enough  to  vote,  he  was  not  too  young  to  make 
republican  speeches,  which  he  did  with  a  contagious 
zeal.  He  assisted  in  reporting  the  proceedings  of  the 
Oregon  legislature,  at  the  session  which  elected  E.  D. 
Baker  to  the  national  senate,  and  at  his  suggestion 
began  to  read  law;  but  his  heart  was  fixed  on  a 
course  at  Harvard,  for  which  he  must  earn  money 
for  the  attendant  expenses;  and  to  this  end  he 
resumed  teaching. 

o 

But  now  occurred  an  interruption.  The  secession 
of  the  southern  states  had  precipitated  the  country 
into  a  civil  war,  and  it  was  a  question  of  the  integrity 
or  dissolution  of  the  union.  On  the  Pacific  coast 
there  was  something  more  to  be  met ;  it  was,  Shall 
there  be  a  separate  Pacific  slave-holding  republic  ? 
To  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  case  required  pluck  as 
well  as  patriotism.  The  people  were  called  together 
in  mass  meetings,  which  were  addressed  by  union 
men,Waymire  taking  the  rostrum  with  older  speakers. 
Then  came  the  news  of  disaster  on  the  bloody  field 
of  Bull  Run,  and  the  ordering  east  of  all  the  regular 
force  on  the  Pacific  coast  except  a  few  officers  left 
to  instruct  volunteers  in  their  duties. 

There  were  at  this  time  numerous  hostile  Indians 
on  the  northern,  eastern,  and  southeastern  frontier  of 
Oregon  and  Washington,  which  had  required  several 
forts  and  garrisons  for  its  protection.  To  leave  this 
vast  extent  of  territory  defenceless  would  be  to  invite 
Indian  as  well  as  foreign  aggression.  A  call  was 
made  for  a  regiment  of  cavalry  to  be  taken  into  the 
service  of  the  United  States.  The  young  men  of 


JAMES  A.    WAYMIRE.  267 

Oregon,  inspired  by  the  hope  of  being  in  their  turn 
called  east  to  fight  the  battles  of  their  country,  cheer- 
fully offered  themselves.  Waymire,  who  might  have 
received  a  commission,  conscious  of  unfitness  for  com- 
mand, enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  1st  Oregon  cavalry 
on  his  nineteenth  birthday,  determined  to  learn  sol- 
diering by  actual  experience.  He  was  rapidly  pro- 
moted to  a  second  lieutenancy,  and  had  enough  of 
marching  and  fighting  to  stimulate  him  to  a  study  of 
arms  as  a  profession,  which  study  he  prosecuted, 
together  with  the  law,  during  the  winter  of  1862  at 
Walla  Walla  and  1863  while  stationed  at  The  Dalles 
as  adjutant  of  the  command.  By  a  vigorous  campaign 
during  the  winter  of  1863—4,  in  which  he  was  aided  by 
a  company  of  miners  under  the  lead  of  Joaquin  Miller, 
afterwards  famous  as  the  "  Poet  of  the  Sierras,"  he 
pointed  out  the  way  to  conquer  a  lasting  peace  with 
the  Indians  of  southeastern  Oregon.  This  pioneer 
winter  campaign  in  which  the  Indians  were  forced  to 
make  a  stand, and  after  a  long  and  hotly  contested 
fight  were  defeated,  though  outnumbering  the  whites 
ten  to  one,  demonstrated  that  in  winter  the  Indians 
could  not  escape  our  troops,  and  thereafter  the 
policy  which  proved  successful  under  General  Crook 
was  adopted,  of  attacking  them  in  winter.  For  these 
services  he  was  complimented  in  general  orders  by 
General  Benjamin  Alvord,  the  commanding  officer.  In 
1864  Lieutenant  Waymire  assisted,  at  the  request  of 
Governor  Gibbs,  in  organizing  a  regiment  of  infantry. 
After  the  fate  of  secession  had  been  determined  by 
the  fall  of  Atlanta,  he  resigned  and  resumed  his 
law  studies,  at  the  same  time  acting  as  private  sec- 
retary to  Governor  Gibbs.  In  1867  he  was  tendered 
a  commission  as  second  lieutenant  in  the  regular 
army,  and  believing  that  an  increase  in  the  service 
gave  promise  of  rapid  promotion,  accepted,  passed 
a  highly  creditable  examination,  and  was  assigned 
to  duty  as  quartermaster  and  commissary  at  Camp 
Lyon,  Idaho,  General  Crook  being  in  command  of  the 


268  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

district.  By  close  attention  to  his  duties  he  greatly 
reduced  the  expenses  of  the  garrison.  In  1869  he 
was  promoted  to  first  lieutenant ;  but,  finding  that  con- 
gress was  reducing  the  army,  cutting  off  any  reason- 
able hope  of  reaching  the  desired  rank  short  of  a 
lifetime,  he  resigned,  and  continued  the  study  of  the 
law  without  interruption  except  to  act  as  reporter 
for  the  Sacramento  Union  in  the  state  senate  of 
California  during  the  winter  of  1869.  In  1870  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of 
Oregon,  and  commenced  practice  in  Salem ;  but  in 
1871—2  again  consented  to  act  as  reporter  for  the 
Union ;  and,  as  this  was  the  session  when  the  codes 
were  adopted,  he  became  familiar  with  them,  as  well 
as  acquainted  with  leading  lawyers  and  other  chief  men 
of  California,  which  led  to  a  resolve  to  practise  law  in 
this  state.  In  May  1872,  the  California  supreme  court 
appointed  him  phonographic  reporter  of  its  proceed- 
ings, which  position  he  held  for  three  years.  This 
also  was  instructive  practice.  From  his  notes  and 
the  records  he  analyzed  arguments  and  prepared 
reports  of  all  the  cases  decided,  which  were  subse- 
quently embodied  in  volumes  41  to  49  of  the  supreme 
court  reports. 

In  1875  Mr  Waymire  resigned  his  office  of  reporter 
and  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  San  Francisco, 
to  which  city  he  had  removed  the  previous  year. 
His  industry,  thoroughness,  and  integrity  soon  won 
him  the  respect  of  a  bar  as  brilliant  as  any  city  of 
its  population  can  boast,  and  his  practice  embraced 
a  wide  range  of  legal  propositions.  In  1877  he  was 
employed  by  General  Meyers,consul-general  to  Shang- 
hai, to  prepare  charges  against  George  F.  Seward,  min- 
ister to  China,  Seward  having  procured  the  suspension 
from  office  of  the  consul-general  for  having  reported 
certain  irregularities  in  office.  Mr  Waymire  exam- 
ined the  evidence,  which  was  chiefly  documentary 
and  very  voluminous,  and  prepared  a  brief,  which 
Meyers  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  distinguished  law- 


JAMES  A.    WAYMIRE.  269 

yers  Matthew  Carpenter  and  Robert  Ingersoll,  to 
prosecute  before  congress.  The  result,  after  a  tedi- 
ous contest,  was  the  recall  of  Seward  and  the  aban- 
donment of  the  impeachment  proceedings. 

A  case  in  which  Mr  Way  mire  was  engaged,  that 
of  Barton  vs  Kalloch,  involved  the  construction  of 
the  constitution  as  to  the  time  of  holding  elections. 

O 

Other  important  cases  in  his  practice  were  that  of 
the  People  vs  Houghton,  in  which  the  supreme  court 
declared  a  swamp  land  act  to  be  unconstitutional ; 
that  of  Mohrenhaut  vs  Bell,  which  involved  the  title 
to  26,000  acres  of  land  in  Sonoma  county ;  that  of  the 
South  Mountain  consolidated  mining  company,  in 
which  he  represented  the  creditors  in  an  application 
for  an  assessment  of  $300,000  on  the  stockholders  ; 
that  of  the  People  vs  Parks,  in  which  the  drainage 
act  was  declared  to  be  unconstitutional,  and  nearly  a 
million  dollars  saved  to  the  state ;  that  of  the  San 
Francisco  gaslight  company  vs  Dunn,  in  which  the 
city's  contract  with  that  company  was  declared  void; 
and  that  of  the  Pioneer  woolen  factory  vs  Dunn, 
which  involved  the  validity  of  the  Bayley  ordinance, 
providing  for  the  annual  payment  of  a  large  sum  for 
water  by  the  city.  Of  these  cases,  the  People  vs 
Parks  is  the  most  notable.  A  law  had  been  passed 
by  the  legislature,  levying  a  tax  of  five  cents  on  the 
$100,  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  dams  to  inter- 
rupt the  flow  of  debris  from  the  mines  worked  by 
hydraulic  power.  It  was  sought,  at  a  subsequent 
session,  to  repeal  this  law,  but  without  success.  It 
was  then  several  times  attempted  to  get  the  question 
of  its  constitutionality  before  the  supreme  court, 
but  the  effort  failed  on  questions  of  practice,  until 
at  last  the  question  was  squarely  presented  in  the  case 
above  quoted,  when  the  court  declared  the  act  uncon- 
stitutional upon  a  point  raised  by  Way  mire  that  the 
act,  in  attempting  to  confer  upon  executive  officers  the 
power  to  form  drainage  districts,  involved  a  delegation 
of  legislative  functions,  and  was  therefore  void.  The 


270  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

debris  question  in  its  different  forms  was  one  which 
concerned  the  agriculturists  of  the  state  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  owners  of  hydraulic  mines,  and  was 
hotlv  contested  in  the  legislature  during  several 

»/  O  O 

sessions  while  waiting  for  the  opinion  of  the  supreme 
court,  which  happily  cut  the  Gordian  knot,  and 
relieved  the  agricultural  people,  not  only  from  a 
tax  in  the  interest  of  mining,  but  from  the  fear  of 
ruin  through  the  filling  up  of  the  beds  of  rivers, 
and  the  prospective  loss  of  their  lands  by  consequent 
overflow  and  deposits  of  worthless  earth. 

In  October  1881,  Mr  Waymire  was  appointed  by 
Governor  Perkins  to  fill  a  vacancy  on  the  bench  of 
the  superior  court  of  San  Francisco.  Among  the 
marked  characteristics  of  his  judicial  career  was  the 
patience  with  which  he  examined  evidence  and  heard 
arguments  ;  his  power  of  analysis  and  skill  in  the 
application  of  legal  principles.  In  little  more  than 
a  year  on  the  bench,  he  rendered  over  1,100  decisions, 
in  many  of  which  he  prepared  written  opinions.  Of 
the  numerous  important  cases  tried  by  him  only 
thirty  were  appealed  and  of  these  but  three  were 
sustained.  The  bar  of  San  Francisco  were  anxious  to 
have  him  retained  upon  the  bench  by  election  at 
the  close  of  the  term  for  which  he  was  appointed, 
and  he  was  nominated  by  both  factions  ot  a  divided 
republican  party,  but  beaten  by  a  small  majority, 
in  consequence  of  the  agitation  of  a  Sunday  law, 
to  which  the  German  population  of  either  party 
were  opposed,  causing  them  to  vote  solidly  with  the 
democrats.  Although  defeated,  he  received  the  high- 
est vote  of  all  the  republican  candidates,  running 
3,000  ahead  of  the  party  candidate  for  governor. 

The  reputation  achieved  upon  the  bench  greatly 
increased  his  legal  business  on  returning  to  practice. 
Among  the  cases  on  which  he  was  engaged  were  the 
so  called  railroad-tax  suits,  one  hundred  of  which  had 
been  brought  by  the  district  attorneys  in  thirty -three 
counties  of  the  state,  against  the  Central  and  South- 


JAMES   A.    WAYMIRE.  271 

ern  Pacific  companies,  the  aggregate  amount  claimed 
being  over  a  million  dollars.  The  suits  were,  on 
motion  of  the  defendants,  transferred  to  the  United 
States  circuit  court  at  San  Francisco,  upon  the  ground 
that  they  involved  questions  arising  under  the  federal 
constitution.  The  state  controller  engaged  Judge 
Way  mire  to  assist  the  attorney-general  in  pressing 
these  suits  to  judgment.  The  state  lost  in  the  circuit 
court,  but  the  attorneys  sued  ouj:  writs  of  error  to  the 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  and  before  that 
tribunal  decided  the  questions  involved,  by  negotia- 
tions with  the  defendants,  succeeded  in  collecting 
$800,000,  which,  with  $200,000  paid  after  the  suits 
were  begun,  brought  about  a  million  dollars  into  the 
coffers  of  the  state. 

In  the  case  of  Shultz  vs  McLean,  before  the 
superior  court  of  San  Luis  Obispo  county,  Judge 
Waymire  was  of  counsel  for  the  plaintiff  in  a  case 
involving  22,000  acres  of  land.  The  complaint  alleged 
fraud  in  obtaining  a  deed  ;  and,  although  such  a  case 
is  most  difficult  to  win,  the  judgment  rendered  was  in 
favor  of  their  client.  In  many  other  important  cases, 
such  as  Ryer  vs  Hyer,  a  divorce  case  involving  more 
than  a  million  of  dollars;  United  Land  Association 
vs  Knight,  concerning  the  Mission  creek  lands ; 
Moore  vs  Hopkins,  where  the  plaintiff  recovered  a 
verdict  for  $75,000  for  breach  of  a  promise  of  marriage 
—Mr  Waymire  was  engaged. 

The  lesson  of  these  successes  in  an  arduous  and 
exacting  profession  is  one  of  honest,  steadfast  pur- 
pose. United  to  great  abilities,  this  makes  all  things 
possible ;  without  it,  the  highest  intellect  is  but  a 
fire-fly  torch,  uncertain  and  misleading.  As  Judge 
Waymire  is  still  on  the  hither  side  of  fifty,  he  may 
reasonably  hope  to  attain  to  greater  eminence  in  his 
profession,  or  in  the  world  of  letters,  where,  had  he 
the  leisure,  he  would  be  glad  to  enter  the  lists  for  a 
prize.  Having  already  acquired  a  comfortable  for- 
tune, this  would  be  an  intellectual  pastime ;  but 


CALIFORNIA. 

men  who  have  shown  themselves  useful  in  any  pro- 
fession can  hardly  escape  the  solicitations  of  those 
who  would  profit  l\v  thoir  services.  That  he  lias 
fully  weighed  the  comparative  value  of  legal  and 
literary  fame  may  be  inferred  from  the  follow inor 
words  contained  in  an  address  delivered  in  IS7;\  on 
memorial  day,  at  Sacramento  :  ••  In  the  free-  press, 
upon  winch  the  people  depend  so  largely  tor  informa- 
tion and  counsel,  and  especially  in  the  popular  forum, 
wheiv  the  great  controlling  power  we  call  public 
opinion  is  concentrated  and  directed  to  some  special 
purpose,  sentiment^  feeling,  all  the  hidden  springs  bv 
which  men  are  moved  to  action,  are  called  into  plav. 

...  A  learne\l  jud^e.  wr\o  for  a  score  of  veal's  has 
Kvu  a  student  of  le^al  !o-i\\  sjives  days  and  weeks, 
and  even  mo:u::s  to  the  investigation  of  some  knotty 
question  of  taw  a:Yeotin£  vital  interests  of  the  public; 
and  at  length  ir.s  opinion  clear,  comj^ct,  tit  to  stand 
as  a:i  opinion  for  ail  time,  is  announced :  but  it 
attracts  the  attention  of  a  small  audience  only,  even 
in  the  community  it  most  concerns," 

He  ha-s  done  some  vigorous  writing  tor  the  leading? 
newspapers  of  Oregon  and  California  upon  political 
and  other  topics.  In  1S75— 6  a  series  of  articles  from 
his  pen,  published  editorially  in  the  San  Francisco 
0^n>mW«\  awakened  a  strong  sentiment  against  stock- 
gamblinof,  aiul  at  tlie  ivquesr  of  liovernor  Irwin  he 
prepared  a  bill  to  re:ue\ly  the  evils  thereof.  T'ae  bill 
was  introduced  i:i  the  assembly  and  passed  that  body 
but  was  defeated  in  the  senate  by  the  united  efforts 
of  the  stock-brokers  and  others  interested  in  main- 
taining the  old  methods.  Many  of  the  features  of 
the  bill  subsequently  became  law. 

Judge  Waymire's  leaning  toward  military  life,  a 
trait  derived  no  doubt  from  his  great-great-graud- 
sire.  John  Rudolph,  the  immigrant,  appears  in  his 
patriotism  and  in  his  affection  for  old  soldiers.  It 
was  at  his  suggestion  that  the  federal  government 
was  memorialized  to  establish  a  branch  of  the  national 


4AME*  A-  W/.YMJRE. 

home  on  the  Pacific  coast.  a/>d  he 
appointed,  being  a  member  of  the  Grand  Arr/jy  of 
the  Ke  public  an/i  Veteran:*'  Home  aa&xriatk&i,  t/>  u/^e 
the  enactment  of  a  Jaw  t/>  that  end.  On,y  afv;r  ve&ra 
of  com^pondenee  with  the  board  of  i/jana^ers.  a.od 
with  3enat/>rfc  arid  r^pT^::;tat;v^  in  coii^r^ws,  v/^/e 
LIJJ  f^ffortfj  finally  crovrrj^l  v/hh  &&wr&.  ar»  appro- 
priation of  $150,000  b^jfi^  ^rai^Vrd  v>  '.-r^rt  a  f>raf^;h 
horn';,  and  in  Nov^rnlxrr  J^T  <i  :-.'•/;  :.'rar  S?»:-ta 
Monica  v/as  i^-l^ct^^J.  v/h^r^;  building  v/^r^  ^r^^rvyi  v> 
af^ornrn^xj^t^  2,000  inr/iaVr-..  Irj  M^r^?.  1 
ch^/fefrTi  a  dir^-t/.rof  the  V<;V;n*r,^  Jfo:;^; 
which  Tr^i^tain^J  at  YountviJ!';  a  rr;tr^^at  fo 


r»$;    n 

four    irrif^  T*i~<wm-        n^r     - 


natjo;,^.    encampment   of   the    jrrsir.d    arr.ov   heid    at 
Portland,  Ma-i:.e  ;rj  I- -5.      Hi- report  of  t:'e  tr*.v-Ac- 

from  the  be$rinnirj£f. 

lie  Las  never  affiliate!  wit?*  the  baser  wort  ir;  anr 
rank  of  life.  It  Is  .^oV;  worthy  t?.at  the  3  st  Or^-oij 
'  ;-  ;-  '  "  "  ..:.-;,  ,  •  ",.-,"- 

vice,  was  known  as  the  puritan   r*,<ri::.ent,  and  v>  t 
puritans  in  rr^>raLs  he  still  be3or;;r*.  akhonzh  as 
and  broad  in  his  opLoioiiS  and  syiLj/athies  a^  a 
man  should  be. 

Judge  Wayniire  1J5  five  feet  ei^ht  inches  in  height, 
full  chested  and  rather  stout:  l^as  blue  eyes  and  re^- 
]^r  features,  with  a  fregli,  almost  boyish,  ccmplexior, 
a  -o*t  voice  and  a  kindly  manner.  He  was  ifiarried 
on  Ju:.-r  22.  HC5.  Vj  Mbs  Virginia  Ann  Chmunao.  a 
native  of  MLss/>urL  and  like  her  husband  of  German 
ancestry.  Mrs  Waymire  is  one  of  the  notable  hoase- 
wives  and  mothers  o.  California,  Judge  WaymireJs 
eldest  daughter  ^Laud  ?ja.s  L^herite^l  both  her  father's 
taste  for  literature  and  history  aad  her  nKrtLer"* 


274  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  home  circle  ;  Charles, 
the  eldest  son,  has  an  unusually  fine  physique  and  a 
talent  for  mathematics ;  Edna,  the  second  daughter, 
is  a  bright  little  girl  who  always  ranks  high  in 
her  classes,  while  Rudolf,  the  pet  of  the  family  has 
not  yet  reached  the  age  when  right  and  wrong  or 
indolence  and  industry  mean  anything  to  his  baby 
mind.  No  sketch  of  Judge  Waymire  would  be  com- 
plete that  did  not  take  cognizance  of  his  sentiments 
and  aspirations  as  a  family  man.  He  has  the  German 
love  of  the  soil  and  of  a  home.  He  is  one  of  the  few 
fathers  in  this  generation  who  takes  a  personal  interest 
in  the  instruction  of  his  children.  Although  not  what 
is  termed  a  society  man,  he  is  fond  of  gathering  his 
friends  at  his  own  fireside,  to  whom  he  is  a  frank  and 
generous  host. 

It  was  his  good  fortune  to  make  some  profitable 
investments  in  San  Francisco  property  about  1884  ; 
but  preferring  a  residence  in  a  suburban  town,  he 
purchased  several  acres  in  Alameda  upon  which  he 
has  expended  a  large  amount  in  creating  an  ideal 
suburban  home,  where  the  eye  looks  out  upon  grounds 
beautiful  with  oaks,  to  which  cling  garlands  of  ivy, 
while  the  lawn  beneath  is  dotted  with  daisies,  and  the 
walks  lined  with  flowering  shrubs  and  trees  from  all 
climes  contentedly  mingle  their  foliage,  as  if  they 
knew  that  their  master  hated  the  axe,  and  counted 
among  them  many  a  leafy  friend.  He  is  specially 
fond  of  the  palm  tree  of  which  he  has  many  vari- 
eties so  grouped  among  accacias,  bamboos,  aracarias, 
bananas,  and  other  tropical  plants  of  the  hardier  sort 
as  to  form  a  landscape  seldom  found  north  of  the 
equator.  Here,  during  the  day,  families  of  quail 
roam  without  fear,  hundreds  of  feathered  songsters 
make  their  homes,  and  at  night  the  owl  hunts  for 
the  gopher  and  the  mole  as  if  he  were  part  of  the 
family. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

MILTON  ALVORD  WHEATON. 

FORENSIC  LEADERS— ANCESTORS— FATHER  AND  MOTHER— NATIVITY — BOY- 
HOOD— EDUCATION — ARRIVAL  IN  CALIFORNIA — LAW  PRACTICE — PATENT 
CASES — THE  SPAULDING  SUITS — EASTERN  RETAINERS — HABITS — INDUS- 
TRY— POLITICAL  VIEWS — RELIGION — WIFE  AND  FAMILY — CHARACTER- 
ISTICS. 

THERE  is  not  perhaps  in  all  our  Pacific  coast  metrop- 
olis a  profession  so  hopelessly  overcrowded,  and  yet  con- 
taining so  large  an  aggregate  of  ability,  as  that  of  the 
law.  Nor  could  it  be  otherwise  in  a  land  where  this 
calling  is  the  highway  of  ambition,  the  stepping-stone 
not  only  to  fortune,  but  to  the  highest  honors  and 
preferment  within  the  gift  of  the  state.  To  all  of  us 
is  more  or  less  familiar  the  career  of  our  great  forensic 
leaders,  some  of  them  still  among  us,  and  some  who 
have  passed  before  the  great  tribunal  from  which  there 
is  no  appeal ;  such  men  as  John  B.  Felton  and  Hall 
McAllister,  Samuel  M.  Wilson  and  Lorenzo  Sawyer, 
M.  M.  Estee  and  Alexander  Campbell.  No  less 
widely  known  is  our  leading  patent  lawyer,  Milton 
Alvord  Wheaton,  to  whom  by  common  consent  is 
conceded  the  foremost  rank  in  this  branch  of  the  pro- 
fession. And  not  alone  for  his  eminence  in  this  direc- 
tion, but  for  those  higher  qualities  of  which  his 
professional  honors  are  but  the  fringe  and  adornment, 
it  is  fitting  that  a  place  should  be  assigned  to  him 
among  the  lives  of  our  leading  citizens,  as  one  whose 

(275) 


276  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

name    ranks    among    the    most   chosen    examples   of 
human  endeavor  and  human  achievement. 

On  both  sides  Mr  Wheaton's  ancestors  were  num- 
bered among  the  earlier  settlers  of  the  New  England 
states,  their  record  being  traced  back  to  days  long 
preceding  the  revolution  which  wrested  from  the 
mother  country  the  fairest  of  her  colonial  possessions. 
His  father,  Earl  Pierce  Wheaton,  a  native  of  Connec- 
ticut, removed  in  early  manhood  to  North  Gage,  in 
Oneida  county,  New  York,  where  he  followed  his  trade 
as  a  carriage  and  wagon  maker.  He  was  a  natural 
mechanic,  skilled  in  every  branch  of  his  craft,  and  in 
this  direction  his  genius  has  been  largely  inherited  by 
his  son,  as  appears  in  his  masterly  grasp  of  details  in  the 
conduct  of  his  patent  cases.  The  father  was  gifted  with 
a  powerful  physique.  Though  not  large  in  stature,  it  is 
said  that  he  could  lift  from  the  ground  by  the  spokes 
of  the  wheel  a  wagon  containing  a  ton  of  hay.  And 
yet  in  all  the  country  round  there  was  no  more  quiet 
or  unobtrusive  citizen.  He  was,  moreover,  a  man  of 
remarkable  intelligence,  active,  energetic,  hard-work- 
ing, and  a  devout  and  earnest  Christian,  a  member  of 
the  baptist  church.  His  decease,  which  occurred  in 
October  1838,  when  Milton  was  but  eight  years  of 
age,  was  caused  by  a  fever  resulting  from  over-exer- 
tion, and  through  misfortunes  that  need  not  here  be 

O 

explained.      He  bequeathed  to  posterity  nothing  save 
his  blessing  and  his  good  name. 

His  wife,  nee  Mary  Salisbury,  was,  as  the  name  im- 
plies, of  English  descent,  though  a  native  of  Brattle- 
borough,  Vermont,  whence,  about  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  the  family  removed  to  Oneida  county,  New 
York,  where  also  they  were  among  the  earliest  set- 
tlers. A  woman  of  strong  force  of  character,  a  sin- 
cere Christian,  and  an  exemplary  wife  and  mother, 
after  her  husband's  death  she  supported  and  educated 
her  family  by  hand-loom  weaving,  in  which  nil  the 
childern  assisted.  Her  sons  were  Levi,  who^after  be- 
ing in  California  five  years,  returned  to  his  native 


MILTON   A.  WHEATON.  277 

state  and  became  a  prosperous  business  man  in  Utica, 
Milton  Alvord,  and  William  Roselle.  The  latter, 
after  serving  in  the  civil  war,  became  a  car  -builder  and 
cabinet- worker  of  Springfield,  Massachusetts.  There 
were  also  two  daughters,  both  of  whom  are  now  de- 
ceased. Their  home  was  in  the  extreme  north  of 
Oneida  county,  then  a  heavily  timbered  region,  but 
later  occupied  by  dairy  farmers.  They  were  a  thrifty, 
hard-working  community,  few  of  them  \vealthy,  but 
all  well-to-do,  most  of  them  owning  their  own  farms, 
each  year  adding  a  little  to  their  possessions,  and 
meanwhile  living  in  comfort  and  giving  to  their  chil- 
dren the  benefit  of  a  thorough  education. 

Such  were  the  influences  and  such  the  associations 
among  which  Milton  passed  the  years  of  his  boyhood. 
And  here,  as  will  be  seen,  were  all  the  elements 
which  tend  to  foster  self-reliance  and  strength  of 
character;  for  a  strong  and  self-reliant  man  Mr 
Wheaton  surely  is ;  strong  in  his  mental,  his  moral, 
and  physical  powers;  strong  in  his  marvellous  capacity 
for  work;  strong  in  his  untiring  energy  arid  persistence ; 
and  strong  in  the  knowledge  of  his  own  strength. 

At  North  Gage,  his  birthplace,  some  twelve  miles 
north  of  Utica — his  natal  day  being  the  1 4th  of 
November,  1830 — we  find  him  until  twelve  years  of 
age  attending  school  in  winter,  and  in  the  haying  and 
harvest  seasons  taking  h is  full  share  in  such  work  as 
he  could  find  to  do  or  was  capable  of  doing.  At  that 
age  he  offered  his  services  to  a  farmer  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  for  his  six  months'  toil  received  the  sum  of 
ten  dollars  in  addition  to  his  board.  For  several 
years  thereafter  he  worked  on  farms  or  in  factories, 
continuing  his  education  as  opportunity  offered,  but 
with  few  intervals  of  recreation  such  as  fall  to  the  lot 
of  those  reared  under  less  adverse  conditions.  Mean- 
while, in  1847,  his  mother  had  been  married  a  second 
time,  and  from  his  step-father  and  also  from  his  uncle, 
both  of  whom  were  moneyed  men,  he  received  offers  of 
assistance.  But  these  he  refused,  as  might  be  ex- 


278  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

pected  from  one  of  his  sturdy  independence  of  char- 
acter. Nor  did  he  at  any  time  seek  from  his  relatives 
a  helping  hand,  though  many  possessed  both  the 
means  and  will  to  aid  him.  He  could  make  his  own 
way  in  the  world,  or  at  least  he  could  make  his  own 
livelihood,  and  that  he  would  do  by  his  own  efforts, 
with  the  aid  only  of  Him  to  whom  no  self-helpful  man 
appeals  in  vain  for  help. 

During  this  year  of  1847  there  were  only  two  week- 
days in  the  entire  season  of  seven  months  when  he 
omitted  his  full  quota  of  work,  and  those  were  the  4th 
of  July  and  the  day  of  his  mother's  second  marriage. 
From  the  summer's  earnings  he  saved  enough  to  pay 
for  a  year's  attendance  at  the  Whitestown  seminary, 
near  Utica.  Here  he  prepared  himself  for  Hamilton 
college,  Oneida  county,  which  he  entered  in  1851, 
remaining  somewhat  less  than  two  years,  in  the  mean 
time  increasing  his  store  of  erudition  by  attending 
school  in  summer,  and  by  teaching  in  winter,  the  lat- 
ter an  excellent  means  of  giving  substance  and  solidity 
to  his  knowledge.  By  his  teaching  and  by  working 
in  the  harvest-fields  during  vacations,  he  defrayed  all 
his  college  expenses. 

In  the  spring  of  1853  his  education  was  postponed 
in  order  to  acquire  the  means  of  more  thoroughly 
completing  it.  By  Amasa  Salisbury,  an  uncle  on  the 
mother's  side,  he  was  invited  to  accompany  him  to 
California,  and  to  this  he  consented,  though  with  no 
very  definite  object  except  to  earn  enough  to  finish 
his  college  course.  Sailing  from  New  York  on  the 
5th  of  April,  on  the  steamer  Uncle  Sam,  and  from 
Panama  on  board  the  Cortes,  they  landed  in  San  Fran- 
cisco exactly  one  month  later.  Mr  Wheaton  expected 
to  gather  gold  enough  for  his  purpose,  at  the  mines 
or  elsewhere,  within  a  single  year.  It  was  more  than 
sixteen  years  before  he  returned  to  the  home  of  his 
childhood,  the  acknowledged  leader  in  his  special  line 
of  practice  of  the  San  Francisco  bar. 

At   the    Forbestown   mines,  in  Butte  county,  he 


MILTON  A.  WHEATON,  279 

acquired  his  mining  experience,  and  that  of  the  brief- 
est and  most  unsatisfactory.  "Observing,"  he  says, 
"that  the  majority  of  the  miners,  though  honest, 
hard-working,  intelligent  men,  failed  to  make  a  living 
by  their  work,  I  concluded  it  was  a  very  good  busi- 
ness to  let  alone,  and  that  conclusion  I  have  ever 
since  entertained."  He  then  found  occupation  in 
chopping  wood  for  a  stearn  saw-mill.  Near  the  mill 
was  a  group  of  dead  sugar-pine  trees  of  enormous  size, 
which  he  felled  and  cut  up,  with  no  great  exertion,  at 
the  rate  of  $4  per  cord,  the  top  of  a  single  tree,  in  one 
instance,  supplying  him  with  $84  worth  of  wood.  In 
the  summer  of  1855  he  taught  school  for  a  term  in 
Washington,  across  the  river  from  Sacramento,  and 
in  the  same  year  entered  the  law  office  of  Carter  and 
Hartley  in  that  city.  In  September  1856  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar,  and  a  few  months  later  removed 
to  Suisun,  then  one  of  the  most  flourishing  of  the  in- 
terior towns,  where  he  soon  acquired  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice. Here  he  remained  for  eight  years,  the  unsettled 
condition  of  land  titles  leading  to  constant  litigation, 
and  furnishing  him  with  all  the  employment  that  he 
desired. 

In  October  1865,  Mr  Wheaton  removed  to  San 
Francisco,  many  of  his  suits  being  then  conducted  in 
the  metropolis,  especially  those  in  connection  with  the 
Suscol  rancho,  the  title  to  which  was  long  in  dispute. 
Some  two  years  later  he  turned  his  attention  to  patent 
law.  In  the  first  case,  that  of  Spaulding  &  Co.  v. 
Tucker  &  Putnam,  one  most  bitterly  contested,  he  laid 
the  basis  of  the  reputation  which  he  has  since  en- 
joyed as  the  most  able  counsel  in  this  branch  of  the 
profession.  By  Mr  Spaulding  a  most  valuable  im- 
provement had  been  made  in  the  method  of  inserting 
teeth  in  circular  saws,  one  that  led  to  important 
changes  in  the  building  of  saw-mills  and  the  manu- 
facture of  lumber,  the  cost  of  which  it  reduced  by 
more  than  one-half.  By  Tucker  &  Putnam,  as  agents 
for  the  American  Saw  company  in  New  York,  large 


280  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

lots  of  saws,  constructed  according  to  the  improved 
pattern,  were  being  sold  without  license  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast,  and  thus  it  became  necessary  for  Mr 
Spaulding  to  protect  his  patent.  To  several  of  the 
most  eminent  lawyers  in  San  Francisco  he  offered  his 
case  in  vain.  "They  knew  nothing  about  patent 
law,"  they  said,  "and  did  not  care  to  undertake  it." 
But  one  day  when  the  inventor  was  relating  to  his 
friend  Abner  Doble  his  difficulty  in  finding  a  compe- 
tent attorney,  he  was  advised  to  consult  with  Mr 
Wheaton.  " I  know  him  well,"  said  Doble;  " he  won 
for  me  a  most  important  case,  and  that  by  appealing 
it  without  my  knowledge  to  the  supreme  court.  He 
is  not  only  an  excellent  lawyer,  but  a  natural  me- 
chanic, and  knows  something  about  patents."  To 
Mr  Wheaton,  therefore,  Spaulding  repaired,  where- 
upon was  established  between  them  not  only  the 
relations  of  lawyer  and  client,  but  a  warm  personal 
friendship,  which  has  ever  since  remained  unbroken. 

With  Mr  Wheaton  were  associated  John  B.  Felton 
and  Alfred  Rix ;  but  to  him  was  entrusted  the  man- 
agement of  the  case,  the  brief  which  he  prepared 
being  approved  without  amendment  by  the  assistant 
counsel.  Opposed  to  him  were  Hall  McAllister  and 
George  Gifford,  the  latter  ranking  in  patent  cases 
among  the  most  eminent  of  eastern  lawyers.  The 
main  question  was,  whether  a  public  use  had  before 
been  made  of  Mr  Spaulding' s  discovery.  By  the  de- 
fence every  trick  was  resorted  to,  even  to  introducing 
into  court  saws  purposely  rusted,  after  being  made 
with  the  patent  improvement  More  than  a  hundred 
witnesses  were  examined ;  but  all  the  important  tes- 
timony on  the  opposite  side  gave  way  before  Mr 
Wheaton's  cross-examination.  He  then  argued  the 
case  closely  and  logically,  as  will  appear  from  the 
following  extract  from  his  able  and  exhaustive  address: 

"  We  are  saying,  perhaps,  more  than  we  ought  upon 
the  question  of  the  patentability  of  the  plaintiff's  im 
provements.     That  he  made  a  very  great  improvement 


MILTON  A.  WHEATOK  281 

upon  saws  is  undisputed.  If  he  was  the  first  inventor 
or  discoverer  of  that  improvement,  then  his  patent  is 
valid,  and  meets  the  full  requirements  of  the  law, 
however  experts,  skill,  and  ingenuity  may  try  to  con- 
found that  improvement  with  other  things  of  older 
date.  The  mechanical  inventor's  skill  is  mechanical 
skill,  and  nothing  else,  and  in  law  all  abstract  princi- 
ples are  considered  old,  and  every  real  invention— 
which  does  not  include  accidental  patentable  discov- 
eries— is  made  up  of  old  principles,  old  materials,  and 
mechanical  skill,  and  generally  is  only  new  combina- 
tions of  new  devices.  The  farthest  limit  of  invention 
only  includes  the  taking  of  materials  furnished  by  na- 
ture, and  working  them  into  such  combination  and 
shape,  that  by  them  we  can  grasp  principles  and 
agents  in  nature,  and  render  them  subservient  to  the 
uses  of  man.  The  inventor  does  nothing  but  put  into 
new  forms  and  use  old  principles  and  old  materials. 
He  creates  nothing.  He  uses  nothing  but  materials 

o  o 

and    mechanical    ingenuity,    which    is    only    another 
name  for  the  higher  order  of  mechanical  skill." 

O 

The  reader  will  not  readily  call  to  mind  an  instance 
of  more  compact  and  cogent  reasoning  than  is  pre- 
sented in  the  above,  reminding  us  somewThat  of  the 
terse  and  lucid  statements  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  of 
whom  Ben  Jonson  remarked:  "  Xo  man  spoke  more 
neatly,  more  expressly,  or  suffered  less  emptiness,  less 
idleness,  in  what  he  uttered."  In  vain  did  Mr  McAl- 
lister reply  with  his  usual  eloquence,  fighting  the  case 
with  all  the  "satanic  industry"  with  which  he  has 
been  accredited  by  his  rivals.  The  result  was  a  judg- 
ment for  the  inventor,  fully  sustaining  his  rio-hts.  In 
other  suits  arising  from  the  infringement  of  the  pat- 
ents, Mr  Wheaton  was  equally  successful ;  so  that  in 
tli is  branch  of  his  profession  lie  came  to  be  regarded 
as  primus  inter  pares,  as  almost  beyond  the  reach  of 
competition.  Said  Mr  Spaulding,  "He  is  both  lawyer 
and  mechanic.  He  has  great  inventive  genius.  He 
understands  his  business  and  tries  his  cases  admirably. 


282  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

He  argues  with  power,  and  his  briefs  are  very  fine. 
He  has  a  peculiar  way  of  getting  at  the  core  of  a 
thing ;  but  he  must  have  his  own  way  in  trying  a  case. 
After  he  had  won  all  my  cases  I  went  to  him  and 
asked  how  much  I  was  in  his  debt.  He  replied, 
'  You  don't  owe  me  anything/  He  recognized  that 
in  conducting  my  business  to  a  successful  issue  he  had 
thoroughly  equipped  himself  as  a  lawyer  in  patent 
cases,  and  that  his  fame  and  fortune  were  assured." 

And  so  indeed  they  were.  As  the  result  of  the 
zeal  and  ability  displayed  in  the  Spaulding  suits,  Mr 
Wheaton  was  retained  in  nearly  all  the  more  impor- 
tant patent  cases  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  in  not  a 
few  in  the  eastern  states,  often  appearing  as  counsel 
before  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States. ' 
Among  the  former  were  those  of  Carter  &  Treadwell 
v.  Baker  &  Hamilton;  In  re  the  Huic  plough  patent; 
a  series  of  actions  in  connection  with  the  Knox  & 
Osborn  quicksilver  furnace  patent;  with  hydraulic 
machines,  car-brakes,  giant  powder,  and  artificial  stone 
pavements. 

As  an  instance  of  the  esteem  in  which  Mr.  Wheaton 
was  held,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  soon  after  his 
victory  on  the  Spaulding  case,  his  opponent,  Mr.  Gif- 
ford,  sent  him  a  retainer  to  secure  his  services  on 
behalf  of  an  eastern  client.  In  New  York,  Chicago, 
St  Louis,  and  Boston  he  has  been  engaged  in  patent 
cases  involving  most  important  interests.  In  that  of 
Levi  Strauss  &  Co.  v.  King  &  Co.,  as  counsel  for  the 
plaintiffs,  he  conducted  to  a  successful  issue  one  of 
the  largest  patent  suits  ever  tried  in  the  United 
States,  involving  the  right  to  patents  on  riveted  gar- 
ments. In  this  trial  428  witnesses  were  examined, 
and  more  than  3,600  printed  pages  of  testimony  were 
taken,  in  addition  to  a  vast  number  of  exhibits,  while 
the  expenses  on  both  sides,  before  judgment  was  ren- 
dered, were  little  short  of  $100,000.  As  attorney 
for  Herman  Royer,  the  patentee  for  a  process  whereby 
hides  are  softened  and  preserved  from  decay,  one  of 


MILTON  A.  WHEATON.  283 

his  suits,  tried  in  Boston  in  1886,  before  Judge  Car- 
penter, resulted  in  a  verdict  for  $18,000  damages  In 
the  previous  year  he  had  been  retained  in  the  suits  of 
the  National  railway  company  against  the  Kansas 
City  railway  company,  probably  the  only  instance 
where  a  San  Francisco  lawyer  has  been  employed  in 
an  action  to  which  both  parties,  plaintiff  and  defend- 
ant, belonged  in  the  east, 

But  to  enumerate  all  Mr  Wheaton's  forensic  tri- 
umphs would  occupy  many  times  the  space  allotted 
to  this  biography.  With  an  inborn  genius  for  me- 
chanics, he  has  applied  himself  almost  exclusively  to 
the  line  of  practice  most  agreeable  to  his  tastes  and 
inclinations,  and  in  patent  law  is  acknowledged  as  an 
authority  by  his  colleagues,  and  indeed  by  the  entire 
community.  But  no  less  to  his  diligence  and  tireless 
energy  than  to  his  eminent  ability  is  due  his  almost 
uniform  success  during  the  practice  extending  over 
wellnigh  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Eight  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  and  sometimes  an  earlier  hour,  finds  him 
at  his  office;  and  in  the  preparation  of  his  cases  there 
is  no  more  conscientious  advocate,  none  who  takes 
more  pains  to  make  themselves  familiar  with  all  their 
salient  points,  and  to  fortify  them  with  a  strong  array 
of  precedents.  While  engaged  in  some  important 
suit  he  has  been  known  to  spend  nearly  the  whole 
night  in  studying  out,  in  his  own  workshop,  some 
problem  which  he  intended  to  demonstrate  to  judge 
and  jury.  In  his  pleadings  he  is  accurate  and  con- 
cise ;  in  his  arguments,  clear  and  forcible,  not  given  to 
oratorical  display,  but  appealing  only  to  reason  and 
to  law,  which  the  greatest  of  all  jurists  has  declared 
to  be  the  essence  of  reason.  Thus  it  is  that  his  ad- 
vocacy has  been  so  widely  successful,  so  widely  in 
demand,  and  that  he  commands  the  respect  of  bench 
and  bar  perhaps  in  as  great  a  measure  as  any  of  its 
members. 

In  politics  Mr  Wheaton  is  a  republican,  though 
never  taking  an  active  part,  except  when  once  he 


284  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

allows  his  name  to  appear  on  the  independent  ticket. 
In  his  political  views  he  is  strongly  opposed  to  Chinese 
immigration,  and  to  the  immigration  from  Europe  of 
the  pauper  and  criminal  classes.  The  Chinese,  he  has 
concluded  after  a  thirty-six  years'  residence  on  this 
coast,  do  not  know  the  difference  between  right  and 
wrong;  they  encourage,  for  the  sake  of  gain,  all  the 
vices  from  which  money  can  be  made;  they  cannot 
be  trusted,  and  are  incapable  of  being  reformed. 
True,  they  are,  as  a  class,  intelligent  and  industrious; 
but  their  very  intelligence  and  industry  make  them 
all  the  more,  by  reason  of  their  viciousness,  a  source 
of  evil  to  the  community. 

In  religion  Mr  Wheaton  is  a  firm  believer  in  the 
Christian  faith,  a  protestant,  and  without  special 
preference  for  any  protestant  denomination,  his  wife, 
children,  and  himself  attending  the  Calvary  presby- 
terian  church.  He  is  a  member  of  several  fraternal 
and  benevolent  associations,  among  the  latter  being 
the  society  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  children. 
On  the  day  of  its  organization  in  1858,  he  joined  the 
Suisun  lodge  of  Odd  Fellows,  No.  78,  and  to  this  he 
has  ever  since  belonged.  On  the  llth  day  of  May, 
1871,  he  took  the  first  degree  in  the  Masonic  frater- 
nity in  California  lodge  No.  1,  and  later  the  three 
dgrees  in  succession  up  to  that  of  master  mason.  In 
1886  he  took  the  several  degrees  in  the  royal  arch 
chapter,  and  in  April  of  the  same  year  was  chosen  a 
knight  of  California  commandery  and  was  admitted 
to  the  order  of  the  mystic  shrine. 

He  has  been  twice  married ;  the  first  time  at  Suisun 
on  Christmas  eve  of  1862,  to  Miss  Carrie  C.  Webster, 
a  native  of  Indiana.  Her  decease  occurred  on  the 
12th  of  July,  1873,  leaving  a  son  only  five  months  old, 
Charles  A.  Wheaton.  To  his  second  wife,  nee  Dora 
Ferine,  a  native  Californian  and  of  Indiana  parentage, 
he  was  joined  in  marriage  on  the  24th  of  September, 
1876.  A  woman  of  musical  and  artistic  tastes,  with 
a  special  talent  for  drawing  and  painting,  and  also 


MILTON  A.  WHEATON.  285 

with  rare  mechanical  skill,  a  thorough  student,  a  de- 
vout church-member,  and  yet  of  most  cheerful  and 
genial  temperament,  it  may  readily  be  imagined  that, 
as  her  husband  remarks,  their  home  is  to  them  almost 
as  a  heaven.  In  the  training  of  her  children,  Lois 
Gertrude  and  Dora  Mildred,  the  former  ten  and  the 
latter  six  years  of  age,  she  uses  only  kindness  and 
persuasion,  never  resorting  to  punishment,  and  as  the 
result  her  wishes  are  promptly  and  cheerfully  obeyed. 
In  the  year  of  his  second  marriage  Mr  Wheaton  re- 
moved to  the  residence  which  he  still  occupies,  oppo- 
site the  Flood  mansion  on  California  street  hill. 
Here  his  brief  leisure  time  is  passed  in  the  company 
of  his  wife,  his  children,  and  his  books ;  for  his  library, 
if  not  one  of  the  largest,  is  one  of  the  choicest  private 
collections  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

In  appearance  Mr  Wheaton  is  a  man  somewhat 
below  medium  height,  with  a  compact  and  stalwart 
frame,  in  complexion  dark,  with  black  hair  streaked 
with  gray,  clear,  hazel  eyes,  and  features  well  out- 
lined and  regular  in  contour.  In  manner  he  is  quiet, 
unobtrusive,  and  reserved,  often  seemingly  absorbed 
in  thought,  averse  to  the  frivolous  pastimes  of  society, 
though  among  intimate  friends  there  is  no  more 
pleasant  and  jovial  companion.  To  his  temperate 
habits,  for  he  uses  neither  tobacco  nor  strong  drink, 
and  also  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  his  domestic 
life,  is  due  his  robust  and  vigorous  health  ;  for  now  in 
his  sixty-first  year  he  accomplishes  with  ease  what  to 
men  of  half  his  summers  would  seem  an  impossible 
task.  His  love  of  his  profession  is  exceeded  only  by 
the  love  of  home,  and  whether  in  the  ranks  of  that 
profession  or  within  the  circle  of  that  home,  there  is 
no  man  more  widely  esteemed  for  his  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart,  the  purity  of  his  life,  and  the  noble 
conceptions  of  duty  to  which  all  the  years  of  that  life 
have  been  devoted. 


CHAPTER  X. 

LIFE  OF  GEORGE   HYDE. 

A  TYPICAL  ARGONAUT — BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION— VOYAGE  TO  CALIFORNIA — 
ALCALDE — LAND  SYSTEM — SURVEYS — GROUNDLESS  ACCUSATIONS — THE 
COMMITTEE  OF  CITIZENS — EXCULPATION  OF  MR  HYDE — ATTITUDE  OF 
GOVERNOR  MASON — PROFESSIONAL  CAREER — MARRIAGE — CHILDREN — 
APPEARANCE — CHARACTER. 

THERE  are  but  few  survivors,  a  score  or  two  at 
most,  of  those  who  landed  on  these  shores  during 
the  pastoral  days  of  California,  the  golden  age  pre- 
ceding the  age  of  gold.  For  this  was  the  time  when 
in  truth  it  might  be  said  of  her  inhabitants,  O  for- 
tunatos  nimium  sua  si  bona  ne'rint  1  when  if  gold  was 
scarce,  that  which  gold  could  purchase  was  abundant, 
and  in  a  measure  within  reach  of  all,  when,  without 
expending  a  single  dollar,  one  travelling  through  the 
land  from  end  to  end  would  find  in  every  house  a  cor- 
dial welcome,  and  in  each  one  the  best  that  it  con- 
tained freely  at  his  disposal.  Those  days  are  long 
since  past,  never,  alas !  to  return,  and  to  me  there  is 
no  more  grateful  task  than  to  record  in  these  pages 
the  career  of  those  who  lived  therein,  and  by  whose 
efforts  were  moulded  the  destinies  of  the  infant  com- 
monwealth. Such  a  man  was  George  Hyde,  who 
arrived  in  this  state  not  far  from  the  day  when  the 
stars  and  stripes  were  unfolded  at  Monterey,  who 
witnessed  the  closing  scenes  of  the  Bear-flag  episode, 
and  of  Fremont's  campaign,  and  was  himself  a  lead- 
ing figure  in  the  political  events  which  marked  the 
close  of  military  rule  and  the  inauguration  of  consti- 
tutional government. 

(286) 


GEORGE  HYDE.  287 

A  native  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  born  on 
the  22d  of  August,  1819,  Mr  Hyde  belonged  to  one 
of  the  oldest  families  of  Pennsylvania,  of  which  state 
his  father  and  grandfather  were  well-to-do  citizens, 
the  former  dying  from  the  effects  of  a  cold  at  the  un- 
timely age  of  twenty-seven.  After  receiving  his  ed- 
ucation at  Mount  St  Mary's  college,  in  Maryland,  he 
studied  for  the  bar  under  one  of  the  leading  practi- 
tioners of  his  native  city,  and  in  1840  was  himself 
admitted  to  practice.  But  of  his  career  in  the  east- 
ern states,  no  further  mention  need  here  be  made, 
for  to  the  more  prominent  part  of  which  he  played  in 
the  annals  of  California  must  be  devoted  the  brief 
space  allotted  to  his  biography. 

From  Norfolk,  Virginia,  Mr  Hyde  set  sail  in  Oc- 
tober 1845,  on  board  the  frigate  Congress,  in  the 
position  of  secretary  to  Commodore  Stockton,  landing 
at  Monterey  on  the  14th  of  July,  1846,  exactly  one 
week  after  Commodore  Sloat,  in  command  of  the  flag- 
ship Savannah,  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the 
name  of  the  United  States.  From  Monterey  Mr 
Hyde  set  forth  at  the  close  of  the  month  for  San  Jose, 
and  thence  for  Yerba  Buena,  or,  as  we  will  call  it, 
San  Francisco,  where  he  arrived  on  the  10th  of  Au- 
gust, 1846. 

On  the  15th  of  September,  1846,  after  Stockton 
had  issued  his  proclamation  declaring  the  territory 
part  of  the  United  States,  and  the  people  citizens  of 
that  republic,  an  election  was  held  for  the  office  ot 
alcalde,  and  others  of  minor  importance.  For  the 
former  the  choice  fell  on  Washington  A.  Bartlettf 
At  that  date  the  duties  of  this  office  were  varied  and 
manifold,  including,  besides  civil,  criminal,  and  admi- 
ralty jurisdiction,  the  collection  of  duties,  the  granting 
of  clearances,  and  all  such  matters  as  pertained  to  the 
captaincy  of  the  port,  and  the  chief  official  of  the 
pueblo  or  town. 

Early  in  December,  provisions  running  short  in 
San  Francisco,  the  alcalde  set  forth  into  the  interior 


288  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

to  procure  a  supply  of  beef,  and  while  on  this  expedi- 
tion was  detained  for  a  month  or  more  by  a  party  of 
hostile  Mexicans.  During  his  absence  Hyde  was  ap- 
pointed to  act  in  his  place  by  the  commanding  officer, 
J.  B.  Hull,  holding  that  position  until  the  release 
and  return  of  Bartlett.  So  well  and  faithfully  did 
he  discharge  his  duties  that  on  the  1st  of  June,  1847, 
he  was  himself  selected  by  General  Kearny  for  the 
office  of  alcalde,  though  accepting  it,  he  said,  some- 
what unwillingly. 

In  order  to  encourage  settlers  of  the  better  class, 
the  Mexican  system  had  been  adopted  in  the  distri- 
bution of  land  in  San  Francisco,  for  in  the  official 
records  that  port  had  been  declared  a  pueblo,  with 
the  usual  four  square  leagues  of  land.  Under  this 
system  every  one  was  entitled,  under  certain  condi- 
tions, to  a  grant  of  land  not  exceeding  one  hundred 
varas  square,  on  payment  only  of  the  fees,  amounting 
to  some  fifteen  dollars.  Early  in  1847,  soon  after 
assuming  the  direction  of  affairs  as  governor,  General 
Kearny  conveyed  to  the  pueblo  what  was  known  as 
the  beach  and  water  lots,  including  the  whole  of 
Yerba  Buena  cove,  which  in  the  following  July  was 
surveyed  and  sold  at  auction.  A  few  months  after- 
ward, at  the  solicitation  of  Alcalde  Hyde,  Colonel  R. 
B.  Mason,  the  successor  of  Kearny,  sanctioned  the 
reorganization  of  the  ayuntamiento,  or  town  council, 
to  which  the  pueblo  was  entitled.  The  six  members 
elected  were  W.  Glover,  W.  D.  M.  Howard,  W.  A. 
Leidesdorff,  E.  A.  Parker,  F.  P.  Jones,  and  W.  S. 
Clark.  So  much  it  is  necessary  to  state  in  order 
to  understand  the  nature  of  the  charges  preferred 
against  Mr  Hyde,  charges  for  which  personal  enmity 
was  alone  responsible,  and  from  which  a  man  of  his 
character  deserves  at  the  hands  of  a  true  biographer 
some  vindication. 

A  few  days  after  assuming  office  Mr  Hyde  was 
requested  by  interested  persons  to  move  the  line  of 
Market  street,  together  with  the  entire  district  of  the 


GEORGE  HYDE.  289 

one  hundred  varas  surveys,  forty  feet  south  of  their 
then  and  present  location,  in  order  to  render  more 
eligible  certain  lots  which  they  desired  to  procure. 
This  he  declined  to  do,  on  the  ground  that  a  num- 
ber of  lots  had  already  been  granted  on  the  line 
of  Market  street,  and  as  their  owners  had  thus  ac- 
quired a  vested  right,  he  had  no  authority  to  inter- 
fere. By  the  same  individuals  a  similar  request  was 
made  as  to  the  beach  and  water-lot  surveys,  and  this 
was  also  refused,  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
almost  completed,  and  the  day  of  sale  was  near  at 
hand. 

Dissatisfied  with  the  alcalde's  decision,  the  ring 
which  had  sought  for  a  change  in  the  public  surveys 
began  a  bitter  and  determined  persecution.  First 
appeared  anonymous  and  insulting  paragraphs  in  the 
California  Star,  and  then  came  charges  of  official 
misconduct,  preferred  by  a  so-called  "committee  of 
citizens,"  appointed  by  the  ring,  and  not  at  any  public 
meeting.  Out  of  seven  allegations  but  two  were  in- 
vestigated, for  these  being  not  only  disproved  but 
turned  against  his  accusers,  no  action  was  taken  on 
the  remainder.  The  inquiry  was  held  before  the 
members  of  the  town  council  already  mentioned,  act- 
ing at  Mr  Hyde's  request  as  a  commission  to  take 
evidence  and  report  to  the  governor,  with  K.  A. 
Parker  in  the  chair. 

The  first  charge  was  that  of  defacing  the  official 
map  of  survey  by  altering  the  numbers  of  certain 
lots,  and  thereby  making  it  valueless.  To  this  there 
was  only  one  witness,  Grayson,  who  stated  that  he 
knew  who  made  the  defacement,  and  that  it  was  Al- 
calde Hyde,  but  on  cross-examination  admitted  that 
his  only  reason  for  supposing  Hyde  to  be  guilty  was 
that  the  map  belonged  to  his  office. 

At  the  following  session  the  animus  of  the  prose- 
cution became  still  more  apparent.  Being  ordered  to 
read  the  evidence,  of  which  he  had  made  a  transcript 
as  directed,  the  clerk  read  only  that  which  had  been. 


C.B.-IL     19 


290  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

given  on  behalf  of  the  committee,  omitting  all  that 
had  been  elicited  in  cross-examination.  When  asked 
why  he  did  so,  he  replied  that  he  supposed  it  his 
duty  to  set  down  merely  the  evidence  against  the 
alcalde.  This  was  too  much  even  for  the  members 
of  the  commission,  one  of  whom  belonged  to  the  ring, 
and  the  clerk's  resignation  was  at  once  demanded. 

The  commission  then  proceeded  with  the  evidence, 
acknowledging  that  on  the  first  charge  this  was  all 
the  testimony,  and  making  no  comment  on  the  nature 
of  that  testimony.  Hyde  then  brought  forward  and 
caused  to  be  read  before  the  members  the  complaint 
made  by  interested  persons  as  to  the  change  of  survey 
in  the  portion  of  the  town  where  the  defacement 
existed.  It  was  shown  that  as  yet  there  was  no  offi- 
cial map,  for  in  view  of  the  possible  change  in  the 
line  of  Market  street,  the  survey  between  Clark  point 
and  North  beach  had  not  been  completed.  It  was 
also  shown  for  whose  benefit  and  at  whose  instance 
the  map  had  been  tampered  with,  before  Hyde  be- 
came alcalde,  and  that  whoever  had  altered  the  num- 
bers of  the  lots  had  done  so  at  the  instigation  of  the 
persons  preferring  the  charges,  with  a  view  to  crimi- 
nate the  alcalde  and  screen  themselves.  It  was 
further  proved  that  some  of  these  numbers  had  been 
merely  restored,  after  being  obliterated  by  Hyde's  pre- 
decessor, as  the  result  of  action  brought  by  certain 
complainants  against  the  pueblo,  and  determined  by 
arbitrators;  that  this  restoration  had  been  made  in  a 
careless  and  slovenly  manner,  in  places  disfiguring 
the  map,  though  by  whom  could  not  be  ascertained, 
but  certainly  not  by  the  alcalde.  In  truth,  the  latter 
knew  nothing  of  the  matter,  until  the  cases  were  set- 
tled by  three  hombres  buenos,  and  the  evidence 
recorded  in  his  office. 

Every  night  for  a  month  the  commission  met;  but 
on  each  occasion  adjourned  until  the  following  night, 
for  the  committee  of  citizens,  though  frequently  cited 
to  appear,  could  not  be  induced  to  proceed.  At 


GEORGE   HYDE.  291 

length,  on  the  5th  of  December,  1847,  the  second 
charge  was  brought  forward  at  the  instance  of  Sam 
Brannan,  who  complained  that  a  certain  lot  promised 
by  the  alcalde's  predecessor,  if  found  to  exist  after 
survey,  had  been  granted  to  a  later  applicant.  For 
this  a  single  session  of  two  hours  was  sufficient.  Bran- 

& 

nan  himself,  after  hearing  the  evidence,  admitting 
that  Hyde  was  in  no  way  responsible.  In  truth,  the 
latter  did  not  even  know  where  the  property  was;  nor 
could  any  written  evidence  be  found  in  his  office  as  to 
the  alleged  promise  or  understanding.  It  was  the 
rule  that  when  a  petition  was  filed  for  a  lot,  the  clerk 
should  make  out  the  deed  and  place  both  deed  and 
petition  on  record,  leaving  the  record  unsigned  until 
the  money  was  paid;  whereupon  the  alcalde,  without 
perhaps  even  looking  at  the  number  of  the  lot,  affixed 
his  signature  to  deed  and  petition,  and  there  the  mat- 
ter ended.  By  the  clerk — the  same  one  \vho  had 
served  under  his  predecessor — it  was  testified  that 
the  alcalde  knew  nothing  about  the  promise  made  to 
Brannan,  that  he  did  not  even  know  of  it  himself,  that 
neither  Brannan  nor  any  of  his  clerks  had  come  to 
the  office  to  complain,  as  stated  by  the  former;  nor 
was  information  at  any  time  received  that  the  lot  in 
question  had  already  been  bespoken. 

Here  the  matter  virtually  ended ;  for  though  the 
council  still  met  as  a  board  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
evidence,  giving  the  committee  every  opportunity  to 
prosecute,  the  complainants,  from  very  shame,  declined 
to  appear,  knowing  that  further  exposure  would  only 
increase  the  contempt  which,  by  their  misrepresenta- 
tions, they  had  already  brought  on  themselves. 

But  further  trouble  was  in  store.  In  March  of  the 
following  year,  the  alcalde,  in  the  exercise  of  his  duty, 
was  compelled  to  place  Leidesdorff,  and  one  George 
McDougall,  under  bonds  on  account  of  an  altercation 
as  to  a  coming  horse-race.  Thereupon  the  former, 
together  with  F.  P.  Jones,  a  member  of  the  council, 
whom  he  had  taken  into  his  confidence,  addressed  a 


292  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

letter  to  Governor  Mason,  requesting  him,  in  view  of 
the  charges  preferred,  to  remove  the  alcalde  from 
office.  This  was  indorsed  by  Howard  and  Parker, 
also  members  of  the  council,  who,  persuaded  by 
others,  wrote  to  this  effect:  " Inasmuch  as  you  have 
appointed  us  to  investigate  Mr  Hyde's  affairs,  we 
recommend  his  removal ";  thus  implying  the  guilt  of 
the  alcalde,  though,  as  will  presently  appear,  without 
any  such  intention.  The  governor  replied  by  calling 
for  a  copy  of  the  evidence,  which  at  once  exposed  the 
treachery  of  the  assailants,  and  thereupon  Parker 
and  Howard  refused  to  take  any  further  action. 
Nothing  abashed,  however,  Leidesdorff  and  his  col- 
league despatched  another  letter  to  the  same  intent, 
requesting  the  governor  to  treat  it  as  private  corre- 
spondence, in  answer  to  which  the  latter  replied  that 
he  must  consider  the  alcalde  innocent  until  evidence 
of  his  guilt  was  produced,  and  that  none  had  as  yet 
been  brought  to  his  notice.  Meanwhile  Mr  Hyde 
took  ship  for  Monterey,  and  in  person  tendered  his 
resignation.  "Well,"  said  Governor  Mason,  "I  shall 
end  all  this  business  to-morrow,  and  send  these  men 
my  final  communication,  of  which  I  will  hand  you  a 
copy.  Of  course  I  must  accept  your  resignation,  for 
after  such  a  fright  as  you  have  had  you  will  not  care 
to  remain  in  office."  "  I  could  not  resign,"  remarked 
Hyde,  "until  the  matter  was  brought  before  you  by 
the  committee."  "You  were  perfectly  right,"  said 
the  other;  "these  matters  are  always  unpleasant,  and 
after  all  a  petty  and  contemptible  business;  there  is 
always  some  trickery  to  be  exposed,  and  most  of  them 
arise  from  anger  and  jealousy."  By  the  general 
public,  after  the  second  charge  had  been  examined 
and  the  prosecuting  committee  had  refused  to  attend, 
the  entire  proceedings  were  regarded  as  a  farce.  But 
that  which  to  the  public,  however  deeply  at  first  they 
were  interested,  became  at  length  a  source  of  amuse- 
ment, could  not  be  lightly  regarded  by  a  man  of  his 
sensitive  temperament,  sense  of  honor,  his  regard  for 


GEORGE  HYDE.  293 

a  reputation  that  was  never  tarnished  save  by  the 
breath  of  slander.  Would  that  more  of  our  office- 
holders, that  more  of  our  politicians,  were  a  trifle 
jealous  of  their  reputations,  for  then  would  political 
trickery  be  held  less  in  esteem  than  political  honesty, 
and  the  iron  rule  of  demagogues  decline  before  the 
milder  sway  of  patriotism. 

For  several  years  Mr  Hyde  was  a  prominent  figure 
in  the  political  circles  of  our  western  metropolis,  where 
also,  until  1852,  he  practised  his  profession  in  the 
supreme  and  inferior  courts,  and  was  acknowledged 
as  a  lawyer  of  good  ability  and  repute.  During  his 
later  years  his  attention  was  directed  mainly  to  real 
estate  operations,  among  his  purchases  and  improve- 
ments being  the  property  opposite  the  Palace  hotel, 
on  Market  street,  near  Kearny,  where  he  erected  the 
Gait  house  and  adjoining  buildings  to  the  westward. 
He  was  also  a  stockholder  and  director  in  the  pro- 
jected railroad  from  San  Diego  to  San  Bernardino, 
and  from  his  various  investments  derived  an  ample  in- 
come, which,  after  withdrawal  from  active  business, 
he  enjoyed  in  the  retirement  of  his  home  and  in  the 
company  of  his  wife  and  children,  for  to  him  there 
was  no  longer  any  charm  in  the  stir  and  excitement 
of  political  and  business  life. 

On  the  18th  of  November,  1841,  he  married,  Ellen 
J.  McCoy,  a  native  of  Philadelphia.  Of  their  six 
surviving  children,  the  only  son,  John  Barry,  became 
a  resident  of  Lower  California.  Frances  Adele,  the 
eldest  daughter,  is  the  wife  of  Camilo  Martin,  the 
Spanish  consul  for  California,  and  a  resident  of  San 
Francisco.  Ellen  J.  was  married  to  Bayard  T.  Smith 
of  Baltimore.  Gertrude  became  the  wife  of  Doctor 
Alexander  F.  Garceau  of  Chicago;  Florence  died  in 
November  1890,  in  the  convent  of  the  Sacred  Heart 
at  Oakland;  and  Marie  C.  remained  to  cheer  her 
mother's  declining  years. 

Mr  Hyde  was  a  man  whose  face  and  figure,  once 
observed,  could  not  be  readily  forgotten.  Tall  of 


294  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

stature,  wanting  only  two  inches  of  six  feet  in  height, 
his  frame  was  well-knit  and  compact,  his  gait  and 
carriage  erect  and  soldier-like,  his  features  regular, 
expressive,  and  clear-cut,  with  bluish  eyes,  a  broad 
and  spacious  forehead,  and  a  mouth  and  chin  denoting 
a  will  capable  of  self-command  and  of  commanding 
others.  In  manner  he  was  genial  and  courteous,  in 
speech  clear,  forcible,  and  concise,  in  tastes  and  habits 
simple  and  natural.  None  there  were  among  the  few 
survivors  of  pre-argonaut  days  who  were  more  deeply 
and  widely  respected,  none  whose  career  was  more 
generally  useful,  more  strictly  honorable,  and  none 
who  were  more  deeply  regretted,  when,  after  passing 
the  age  of  threescore  years  and  ten,  he  was  sum- 
moned to  his  eternal  rest 


CHAPTER  XL 

LIFE  OF  ANNIS  MERRILL. 

ANCESTRY — HOME — EDUCATION  OF  HEAD  AND  HANDS — TUITION  EARNED — 
TEACHER  AND  LAWYER — PRACTICAL  BENEFICENCE — QUIET  MORAL  AND 
INTELLECTUAL  FORCE. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1891  Annis  Merrill  had  passed 
eleven  years  beyond  the  scriptural  life-term,  and  al« 
though  he  had  retired  for  more  than  a  score  of  years 
from  the  jostlings  and  friction  of  acquisitive  labor, 
his  zeal  for  the  betterment  or  relief  of  his  fellow-man 
continued  unabated.  Ripe  in  scholarship  and  experi- 
ence, he  appears  exceptionally  exempt  from  the  ordi- 
nary foibles  and  asperities  of  age.  The  years  have 
come  softly  upon  him,  confirming  rather  than  marring 
his  natural  dignity  or  disturbing  the  sweetness  of  his 
temper.  Courtly  in  appearance  and  manner,  he 
might  be  taken  for  a  representative  Kentuckian  of  a 
generation  past;  for  in  his  walk  and  conversation  he 
manifests  the  moral  tone  and  courtesy  of  that  old 
school.  He  was  not  reared  in  that  regime,  but  it 
has  been  more  than  once  observed  by  students  of 
such  phenomena,  that  men  whose  lives  are  framed 
upon  the  same  principles  may  resemble  one  another 
in  the  distinguishing  features  of  expression  and  car- 
riage, though  the  details  of  their  environment  be 
quite  unlike.  The  circumstances  of  life  in  Kentucky, 
among  the  aristocratic  class  who  had  at  command 
ample  means  of  liberal  culture,  were  highly  favorable 
for  the  development  of  character;  they  were  students, 
not  altogether  because  it  is  useful  to  be  learned,  but 

(295) 


296  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

also  because  of  a  conventional  pride  in  education. 
But,  in  addition  to  the  incentives  prevailing  in  that 
typical  southern  community,  there  existed  in  Massa- 
chusetts a  primary  ambition  resulting  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  making  a  living.  The  conditions  in  New 
England  were  of  a  nature  to  compel  and  to  stimulate 
to  labor  of  hand  or  head.  The  consequence  was  the 
development  of  self-reliant,  independent  men  and 
women.  The  life  and  character  of  Annis  Merrill,  a 
moral  and  intellectual  force  among  the  builders  of  a 
commonwealth  on  this  coast,  is  an  exemplification  of 
this  fact. 

Born  September  9,  1810,  at  Harwich,  Massachu- 
setts, when  two  years  of  age  his  parents  removed  to 
the  town  of  Bath,  situated  among  the  granite  hills  of 
New  Hampshire,  within  view  of  the  White  mountains. 
The  child  lived  in  no  one  locality  long,  however,  for 
his  father,  Joseph  Annis  Merril),  was  an  itinerant 
methodist  clergyman.  This  worthy  man  died  in 
June  1849,  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age, 
shortly  before  his  son  had  arrived  in  San  Francisco, 
that  is,  on  the  18th  of  August  of  the  same  year.  En- 
tering the  methodist  ministry  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
he  was  an  energetic  member  of  the  New  England 
conference  during  his  whole  life.  Devoted  to  the 
cause  of  education  also,  he  was  among  the  principal 
founders  of  Wilbraham  academy,  the  first  institution 
of  learning  successfully  established  in  America  by 
the  methodists.  A  powerful  preacher  and  a  critical 
scholar,  his  life  was  practically  dedicated  to  the  pro- 
motion of  religion  and  learning.  He  inherited,  nev- 
ertheless, the  martial  spirit  of  his  ancestry,  and 
during  the  war  of  1812  served  as  chaplain  in  the 
celebrated  fighting  regiment  of  Colonel  Binney.  His 
father,  who  had  been  a  soldier  throughout  the  entire 
revolutionary  war,  had  taken  part  in  the  battle  of 
Bunker  hill,  and  had  witnessed  the  surrender  of 
Cornwallis  at  Yorktown.  An  ancestor  of  the  family, 
Peter  Merrill,  of  Huguenot  origin,  a  captain  in  the 


ANNIS   MERRILL.  297 

navy  of  Great  Britain  during  the  reign  of  Charles 
the  second,  was  knighted  for  bravery  in  the  war 
against  the  Dutch.  Members  of  his  family,  for  the 
sake  of  religious  liberty,  in  1638  emigrated  to  Amer- 
ica, and  settled  at  Newbury,  Massachusetts.  The 
Merrills  trace  their  genealogy  in  this  country  to  his 
sons  John  and  Nathaniel. 

The  household  of  Joseph  Annis  Merrill  was  one  in 
which  the  highest  duties  of  man  were  taught  and 
fulfilled.  His  wife,  whose  maiden  name  was  Hannah 
Jewett,  the  daughter  of  a  baptist  minister  of  Cana- 
dian-English descent,  was  devotedly  religious,  well 
educated,  poetic  in  temperament,  and  lovely  in  person 
as  well  as  in  spirit.  It  was  recorded  of  her  after  her 
death,  which  occurred  a  few  years  following  her  hus- 
band's decease,  that  "  she  was  estimable  in  all  the 
relations  of  life."  Their  home  was  frequently  visited 
by  leading  men  of  the  church,  whose  manners  and 
conversation  entered  directly  into  the  education  of 
their  ten  children.  Eschewing  all  frivolous  topics, 
they  discussed  only  those  things  which  have  a  sub- 
stantial bearing  on  the  present  condition  or  future 
state  of  mankind — religion,  morals,  education,  econ- 
omy, law,  politics,  society.  While  earnest,  and  for 
truth's  sake  sometimes  heated,  their  argument  or 
conversation  was  ever  characterized  by  cheerful  dig- 
nity and  Christian  courtesy.  Of  the  ten  children,  of 
whom  Annis  was  the  second,  all  were  living  in  1890 
but  one.  Three  of  the  sons  were  ministers,  two  law- 
yers, and  the  two  daughters  are  wives  of  ministers  of 
the  gospel.  Mr  Merrill  insisted  that  his  boys  should 
each  learn  a  trade,  and  his  wishes  were  complied  with 
by  all  of  them  except  the  eldest;  he  escaped,  because 
when  the  time  arrived  for  apprenticeship  he  was  en- 
grossed in  preparation  for  the  ministry. 

Annis  Merrill  began  his  education  at  the  common 
school,  at  that  day  held  in  special  veneration  and  at- 
tended by  almost  all  children.  At  ten  years  of  age 
he  entered  the  Newmarket  academy,  which  his  father 


298  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

had  been  instrumental  in  founding,  in  which  he  was 
a  student  for  two  or  three  years.  In  his  twelfth  year 
his  parents  removed  to  Connecticut.  His  next  school 
was  a  tannery  in  which  he  served  two  years;  but  he 
aspired  to  a  sphere  of  greater  usefulness,  though  he 
never  despised  any  honest  labor,  however  humble. 
Earning  enough  money  by  teaching  school  in  the 
long  winters,  he  paid  the  expenses  of  his  tuition  dur- 
ing the  rest  of  the  year,  and  prepared  himself  by  an 
academic  course  for  the  Wesleyan  university.  The 
four  years'  curriculum  there  he  completed  with  honor, 
in  his  twenty -fifth  year;  rather  later  than  most  young 
men  graduate,  but  in  the  judgment  of  some  educa- 
tors quite  early  enough  for  the  complete  digestion  of 
the  course ;  though  the  delay  in  this  instance  was 
because  he  had  to  earn  his  expenses.  After  gradua- 
tion, and  while  a  student  at  law,  he  went  to  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  where,  though  differing  from  the 
majority  of  the  community  in  politics,  he  formed 
friendships  among  the  leading  citizens,  and  was  offered 
an  eligible  situation  as  principal  in  the  high  school 
about  to  be  established  there;  but  he  accepted  instead 
a  call  to  the  professorship  of  Latin  and  Greek  at 
McKendree  college,  Lebanon,  Illinois.  The  charac- 
ter of  his  labor  as  an  educator  for  the  next  seven 
years  was  manifested  by  the  success  of  a  number  of 
his  pupils  who  subsequently  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  higher  walks  of  life.  While  teaching  the 
classics  and  political  economy  in  conjunction  there- 
with, he  continued  the  study  of  law,  and  in  1843  was 
admitted  to  practice  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois; 
and  when  he  resigned  his  professorship,  he  entered 
the  law  at  Belleville,  St  Clair  county,  in  that  state. 
A  year  later,  having  to  remove  on  account  of  his 
health,  he  went  to  Boston,  and  there  formed  with  his 
brother  the  law  partnership  of  A.  &  A.  B.  Merrill.  The 
most  conspicuous  incident  of  his  practice  in  Boston  was 
his  connection  with  Rufus  Choate  in  the  celebrated 
case  of  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  versus 


ANNIS  MERRILL.  299 

Albert  J.  Tirrell,  his  client,  tried  first  for  murder 
and  afterward  for  arson,  and  acquitted  on  both  charges. 
The  defence  set  up  was,  that  if  the  accused  committed 
the  deed,  he  was  in  a  somnambulistic  state  at  the 
time  of  the  act,  and  therefore  not  morally  or  legally 
responsible.  The  plea  was  a  novel  one,  never  offered 
before,  perhaps,  nor  since,  and  extraordinary  ingenuity 
was  required  to  maintain  and  establish  it.  Mr 
Choate's  argument  was,  of  course,  masterly;  while 
he  is  reported  to  have  remarked  to  his  associate  coun- 
sel, Mr  Merrill,  whose  argument,  reported  in  sub- 
stance in  the  Boston  press,  evinces  great  legal  ability 
and  profound  study  of  the  science  of  human  pathol- 
ogy: "  Publish  this  case,  and  it  will  immortalize  you." 
These,  in  brief,  are  the  salient  features  of  the  career 
of  Annis  Merrill,  until,  being  again  in  ill  health,  it 
occurred  to  him  that  he  might  recuperate,  and  at  the 
same  time  earn  a  competency  in  a  few  years  in  Cali- 
fornia. He  was  then  in  his  thirty-ninth  year,  older 
than  the  majority  of  those  who  came  to  the  far  west, 
but  this  was  not  to  his  disadvantage.  It  would  have 
been  better  for  many  others  had  they  came  hither 
like  himself  with  habits  fixed  and  judgment  matured, 
for  he  was  indeed  admirably  equipped,  morally  and  in- 
tellectually, for  a  career  of  respectability  and  useful- 
ness. He  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  a  home  favor- 
able to  the  formation  of  character ;  he  had  availed 
himself  of  his  opportunities  to  acquire  the  rudiments 
of  English ;  in  the  school  of  manual  labor  he  had  ob- 
tained a  sure  means  of  support;  the  privilege  of  liberal 
culture,  the  result  of  his  own  toil,  he  had  appreciated 
and  utilized ;  after  seven  years'  experience  as  an  edu- 
cator of  young  men,  he  had  entered  mind  and  soul 
into  a  profession  held  in  esteem  by  many  good  men. 
His  habit  was,  like  Webster,  first  to  reason  out  a  case 
on  elementary  principles  of  law  as  the  foundation,  and 
then  to  use  authority  or  precedent  in  framing  the 
superstructure  of  his  argument.  The  reverse  of  this, 
which  is  so  much  in  vogue  in  the  practice  of  the  pres- 


300  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

ent  day,  that  is,  of  striving  for  a  decision  primarily 
upon  the  weight  of  authority,  he  never  could  consider 
the  true  or  intellectual  method.  He  attributed  his 
success  to  work,  for  he  was  wont  to  say:  "  Whatever 
talent  the  lawyer  may  possess,  he  cannot  succeed 
eminently  without  thorough  preparation."  He  laid 
great  stress  upon  integrity  in  the  practise;  for 
"ultimately,"  said  he,  "the  more  conscientious  the 
lawyer  the  more  successful  he  will  be."  To  his  pro- 
fession he  paid  this  glowing  tribute:  "As  a  class, 
lawyers  are  as  honorable  and  conscientious  as  schol- 
ars or  ministers  of  the  gospel;  the  moral  courage  they 
exhibit  at  times  in  their  loyalty  to  clients,  at  what- 
ever cost  or  sacrifice,  rises  to  the  sublime." 

On  his  arrival  in  San  Francisco  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  John  MeA7ickar,  a  lawyer  from  Detroit, 
Michigan,  whose  acquaintance  he  had  formed  on  the 
trip  by  way  of  the  Isthmus.  Among  the  fraternity 
in  California,  each  had  brought  with  him  the  law  he 
had  been  accustomed  to  at  home.  The  result  was  an 
extraordinary  medley  of  forms  and  processes  in  early 
litigation  in  San  Francisco.  Still,  as  the  great 
desideratum  was  despatch,  the  merits  of  a  case  were 
quickly  arrived  at,  and  as  expeditiously  determined. 
Merrill  and  McVickar  prospered,  but  Mr  McVickar 
dying  in  1854,  Merrill  continued  in  the  practice  alone 
for  seven  or  eight  years.  Then,  for  the  most  part,  he 
retired,  except  that  he  would  occasionally  give  advice 
to  friends,  and  was  the  legal  adviser  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Savings  and  Loan  society,  commonly  known  as 
the  Clay  street  bank,  of  which  he  was  also  director  for 
many  years.  It  was  during  his  connections  with  this 
institution  that  it  survived  the  memorable  ordeal  of 
an  eighteen  months'  run,  brought  on  by  cashing  false 
navy  warrants  to  the  amount  of  $250,000.  Mr 
Merrill  and  other  directors  and  stockholders  stepped 
into  the  breach,  and  with  their  private  funds  saved 
the  bank  from  loss.  Since  withdrawing  from  active 
practice,  he  has  been  occupied  in  the  management  of 


ANNIS  MERRILL,  301 

his  real  estate,  the  results  of  his  early  investments, 
which  proved  judicious  and  profitable.  A  prudent 
and  capable  man  of  business,  he  was  never  a  slave  to 
money -getting.  Ever  in  sympathy  with  the  commu- 
nity, he  has  taken  an  active  and  generous  interest  in 
whatever  concerns  the  people. 

The  Reverend  Joseph  Annis  Merrill,  during  his 
last  hours,  sent  a  characteristic  message  to  each  of  his 
absent  children.  "  Tell  Annis,"  said  he,  "  I  would  as 
lief  go  to  heaven  on  wooden  wheels  as  on  golden 
wheels."  To  the  mind  of  this  good  man  the  act  of 
emigrating  to  California  seemed  not  unlike  the  offer- 
ing of  sacrifice  to  mammon.  And  yet  this  far  distant 
land,  seeming  to  many  at  that  day  beyond  the  pale 
of  civilization,  has  never  been  without  its  good  works 
and  charities,  nor  has  the  life  of  Annis  Merrill  in 
California  been  less  than  unselfish  and  benevolent. 
Truly  he  possessed  the  talent  to  acquire  wealth,  but 
this  talent  is  not  always  base  or  sordido  It  is  a  con- 
summation devoutly  to  be  wished  that  all  who  are  as 
benevolent  as  he  might  be  rich.  Then,  indeed,  would 
all  men  say,  wealth  is  a  blessing.  He  was  not  am- 
bitious to  acquire  fame  or  power,  or  to  command  lux- 
uries. He  has  aspired  to  be  useful  in  the  humbler 
walks  of  life,  placing  duty  to  others  above  purely  per- 
sonal consideration.  He  acquired  the  thousands  he 
desired  in  California,  and  more,  and  he  remained  to  be 
a  benefactor  by  his  generosity,  and  by  the  example  of 
his  living.  "Homo  sum,  uihil  human!  a  me  alienurn 
puto,"  seemed  a  controlling  sentiment  of  his  action. 

His  experience  and  reflections  having  led  him  to 
appreciate  the  evil  consequences  of  vice,  he  endeavored 
not  only  to  lead  a  wholesome  life,  but  to  help  others 
to  do  so.  When  only  ten  years  of  age  he  and  other 
boys  drank  with  the  crowd  from  the  great  punch-tub 
at  the  launching  of  a  ship,  and  became  intoxicated. 
While  working  in  the  tan-yard,  if  his  clothes  got  wet, 
a  toddy  was  taken  to  counteract  the  chill.  Many  of 
the  veterans  of  the  revolution  were  still  living  when 


302  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA, 

he  was  a  boy ;  nearly  all  of  them  drank,  many  of  them 
to  excess.  Occasional  drunkenness  was  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception.  In  almost  every  house 
considered  hospitable,  there  was  a  sideboard  provided 
with  rum,  brandy,  gin,  whiskey,  or  wine,  of  which 
guests  were  expected  to  partake  without  stintc  Min- 
isters of  the  gospel  tippled,  and  if  they  became  un- 
duly exhilarated,  little  was  thought  of  it.  Young 
Merrill  promised  himself,  when  sixteen  years  old, 
that  he  would  not  drink  again,  and  he  never  did. 
Total  abstinence  became  a  part  of  his  religion.  There 
was  no  temperance  organization  at  that  time,  and  it 
was  many  years  before  anything  was  conceived  of  in 
the  nature  of  a  suppression  of  the  traffic  in  intoxicat- 
ing drinks  by  law.  The  first  temperance  society  he 
heard  of  he  joined.  While  in  college  he  lectured  and 
continued  to  work  in  the  cause,  so  that  when  the  pro- 
hibition party  was  formed  it  naturally  found  in  him 
one  of  its  earnest  supporters.  Though  he  was  not 
young  enough  then  to  be  as  active  in  the  fight  as  he 
could  wish,  he  exerted  his  influence,  ever  raising  his 
voice  and  contributing  freely  of  his  means  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  strong  drink. 
Intoxication  seemed  to  him  so  terrible  and  so  unnat- 
ural, that  he  could  not  but  look  upon  its  suppression 
as  the  work  of  God  himself,  through  the  free  moral 
agency  of  intelligent  men.  He  has  lived  to  see  a 
great  check  placed  upon  drunkenness,  almost  a  revo- 
lution wrought  out,  and  much  sooner  than  he  had  ex- 
pected. The  churches,  protestant*  and  catholic,  have 
taken  a  stand  against  the  traffic  in  alcoholic  stimu- 
lants. Within  and  without  the  church,  organization 
has  followed  organization,  pledged  to  warfare  against 
the  liquor  fiend,  while  science  is  occupied  in  demon- 
strating its  evil  effects.  The  women  of  the  land  are 
arrayed  against  it,  for  they  see  drunkenness  in 
the  wreck  of  husbands,  brothers,  and  sons.  If  they 
vote,  and  Mr  Merrill  maintains  that  they  should  be 
allowed  to  do  so,  if  for  this  purpose  alone,  the  triumph 


ANNIS  MERRILL.  303 

of  temperance  would  be  assured.  He  appreciates  ex- 
pediency in  all  things,  and  favors  every  legitimate 
means  toward  the  end  proposed.  While  he  is  not  un- 
aware of  the  logical  difficulty  of  high  license,  he  would 
accept  this  apparent  compromise  for  the  sake  of  the 
advantage  it  offers,  as  a  point  of  departure.  He 
realizes  that  the  people  can  be  educated  up  to  the 
standard  of  total  abstinence  only  by  degrees;  he  is 
not  violent  or  bitter  in  his  temperance  views,  but 
practical  and  charitable.  He  is  not  blind  to  the  fact 
that  there  are  men  who  are  engaged  in  the  liquor 
business,  of  fair  character  in  other  respects,  who,  mak- 
ing a  living  by  means  of  legalized  enterprise,  consider 
their  business  honest. 

In  his  religion,  which  is  the  source  of  his  enthusi- 

o  ' 

asm  in  all  other  works,  he  has  been  a  stanch  nieth- 
odist  from  early  manhood.  A  constant  and  zealous 
student  of  the  bible,  as  his  knowledge  of  the  scripture 
has  increased,  so  has  he  been  ever  confirmed  in  the 
doctrine  of  his  church,  which  he  regards  as  a  great 
power  for  good,  possessing  very  large  general  influ- 
ence, because  in  touch  with  the  masses  of  the  people. 
As  a  teacher  of  the  bible  in  the  Sunday  school,  he 
was  a  diligent  and  a  conscientious  laborer  before  he 
came  to  California,  and  he  has  been  an  indefatigable 
and  successful  worker  in  this  field  ever  since.  For 
twenty-five  years  president  and  life  member  of  the 
California  Bible  society,  and  for  many  years  a  life 
member  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  association, 
he  is  now  also  vice-president  of  the  American  Bible 
society.  In  religious  work  he  has  been  a  reliable 
source  of  charity  and  support.  There  are  many  prot- 
estant  churches  in  San  Francisco  and  other  places  on 
this  coast  to  the  foundation  of  which  he  has  con- 
tributed generously. 

To  the  work  of  secular  education  he  has  been  not 
less  devoted,  believing  that  knowledge  acquired  from 
profane  literature  is  not  only  valuable  on  account  of 
its  temporal  uses,  but  that  the  greater  the  enlighten- 


306  GOVERNMENT- CALIFORNIA. 

and  purity  of  his  life,  his  profound  sense  of  right, 
tempered  with  charity,  his  learning  and  the  dignity 
of  his  character,  render  him  a  type  of  those  to  whom 
alone  the  people  feel  that  the  administration  of  justice 
ought  to  be  intrusted. 

"No  true  worth,  known  or  unknown,  can  die  on  this 
earth.  The  life  of  a  moral  agent  stands  upon  an  en- 
during basis,  silently  addressing  to  every  new  gener- 
ation a  new  lesson  and  monition.  His  life  is  worth 
interpreting,  and  ever  in  the  dialect  of  new  times  of 
writing  and  rewriting."  Though  among  the  quietest 
forces  of  our  community,  Mr  Merrill's  influence  for 
good  will  ever  be  felt  in  those  beneficent  activities, 
only  a  part  of  which  have  been  mentioned,  to  which 
he  has  devoted  unselfish  years.  Of  sweet  and  gra- 
cious disposition,  he  has  rendered  himself  happy 
chiefly  by  contributing  to  the  happiness  of  others. 
With  regard  to  that  most  vital  concern,  in  which  the 
present  is  involved  as  a  probation  for  the  future,  it 
may  be  said  that  to  faith  he  has  added  good  works, 
and  that  when  summoned  before  the  last  and  uni- 
versal tribunal,  his  record  will  not  be  such  as  to 
make  him  ashamed  or  afraid.  Among  the  great  men 
of  earth  there  are  not  a  few  who,  for  lack  of  con- 
science, might  without  loss  to  the  moral  world  be 
entirely  forgotten.  It  is  from  such  as  Annis  Merrill, 
however,  that  we  learn  the  universal  value  of  labor, 
self-government,  integrity,  knowledge,  and  charity, 
the  last  of  which  is  the  highest  and  best  of  all  the 
virtues,  finite  or  infinite 


CHAPTER  XII. 

LIFE  OF  CHARLES  MACLAY, 

THE  CLERICAL  PROFESSION— LINEAGE— RORERT  MACLAY— JOHN  MACLAY — 
OTHER  MEMBERS  OF  THE  FAMILY — EDUCATION  OF  CHARLES  MACLAY — 
MISSION  WORK— AT  SANTA  CLARA— POLITICAL  CAREER— SENATOR- 
POLITICAL  VIEWS — THE  SAN  FERNANDO  TRACT — THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGE 
— MRS  MACLAY — CHILDREN — SUMMARY, 

IT  has  been  remarked  that  the  church  has  long- 
ago  ceased  to  enlist  in  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  those 
who  are  best  fitted  to  become  its  champions,  men  of 
liberal  views,  and  of  broad,  comprehensive  intellect, 
untrammelled  by  the  fetters  of  bigotry  and  supersti- 
tion. This  may  in  part  be  true ;  but  it  is  not  all  the 
truth.  Many  there  are  and  have  been  in  the  ranks 
of  the  clergy  who  were  held  in  higher  esteem  than 
any  of  our  magnates  or  millionaires.  Such  a  man, 
for  instance,  was  Thomas  Starr  King,  and  such  was 
the  Reverend  Charles  Maclay,  whose  career  in  the 
ministry  and  later  in  the  senate-chamber  is  no  less 
widely  known  than  are  the  benefactions  which  have 
made  his  name  a  household  word  in  every  portion  of 
the  state. 

The  lineage  of  the  Maclays  is  traced  back  beyond 
the  time  of  that  bloodless  revolution,  when  William 
of  Orange  made  his  triumphal  march  from  Torbay  to 
Westminster,  and  the  last  of  the  Stuarts  ended  his 
brief  but  eventful  reign.  At  that  date  their  ances- 
tor, Charles  Maclay,  was  one  of  the  oldest  residents 
of  County  Antrim,  Ireland.  Of  his  three  sons,  Owen, 
Charles,  and  Henry,  the  second  was  killed  in  a  duel 

(307) 


308  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

with  a  French  officer,  the  third  lost  his  life  at  the 
battle  of  the  Boyne,  while  the  eldest  accompanied 
the  fallen  monarch  into  his  voluntary  exile,  and  in 
France,  where  he  ended  his  days,  accumulated  a  con- 
siderable fortune,  which  he  bequeathed  to  strangers. 
By  his  second  wife,  nee  Hamilton,  a  lady  of  Scotch 
extraction,  Charles  Maclay  the  elder  had  a  fourth 
son,  named  John,  and  of  the  three  children  of  the  lat- 
ter the  two  boys,  also  named  Charles  and  John,  took 
ship  for  America  in  1734,  landing  at  Philadelphia. 
Unto  John  Maclay  the  younger  were  also  born  three 
children,  John,  Charles,  and  Elizabeth,  of  whom  the 
younger  son  became  a  captain  in  the  revolutionary 
war  and  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Crooked  Billet ; 
the  daughter  was  married  to  Colonel  Samuel  Cul- 
bertson  of  Pennsylvania,  and  John  espoused  his 
cousin  Eleanor,  by  whom  he  had  ten  children,  the 
youngest  of  whom,  named  Robert,  was  the  father  of 
the  personage  whose  biography  is  now  presented  to 
the  reader 

In  early  life  Robert  Maclay  settled  at  Concord, 
in  Franklin  county,  Pennsylvania,  then  a  small  vil- 
lage situated  in  the  heart  of  a  mountain  gorge. 
Here  he  engaged  in  business  as  a  merchant,  farmer, 
and  tanner,  and  under  able  and  judicious  management 
his  affairs  steadily  prospered,  so  that  for  the  time  and 
place  he  soon  possessed  a  considerable  estate.  He 
was  a  man  of  strong  character,  strong  in  mind 
and  body,  and  by  all  the  country  round  was  regarded 
as  a  natural  leader  of  men,  one  whose  advice  and 
opinion  were  courted  and  held  in  respect.  A  sincere 
and  exemplary  Christian  and  a  member  of  the  meth- 
odist  episcopal  church,  of  which  he  was  ever  a  firm 
supporter,  it  was  his  earnest  desire  that  all  his  sons 
should  prepare  for  the  ministry;  but  first  of  all  they 
were  trained  to  habits  of  industry  and  taught  to 
labor  with  their  hands,  lest  they  should  become,  as  is 
often  the  case  with  the  brethren  of  their  cloth,  a 
mere  burden  upon  the  community.  Of  his  five  sons, 


CHARLES  MACLAY,  309 

the  Reverend  John  Maclay  is  now  living  in  retirement 
at  Saratoga,  after  his  long  and  useful  labors  as  a 
clergyman  in  the  southern  methodist  church.  Here, 
after  a  similar  career,  his  brother  Alexander  died 
some  years  ago,  while  W.  J.  Maclay  became  a  pro- 
fessor of  languages  in  the  university  of  the  Pacific, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  a  member  of  the 
state  legislature  for  Napa  county,  California.  Doc- 
tor R.  S.  Maclay,  another  member  of  the  family,  was 
sent  in  1848  as  a  missionary  to  China,  where  for 
twenty-five  years  he  labored,  and  during  most  of  that 
period  was  superintendent  of  the  mission  work,  pub- 
lishing in  the  Chinese  language  a  dictionary  and  sev- 
eral religious  treatises.  He  was  then  transferred  to 
Japan,  where  he  was  also  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
methodist  mission,  and  organized  a  college  under  the 
auspices  of  that  denomination.  Through  failing 
health,  however,  he  was  compelled  to  remove  to  Cal- 
ifornia, where  he  became  dean  of  the  college  of  San 
Fernando.  Of  the  four  daughters,  three  married  and 
died  near  their  old  home  in  Pennsylvania,  while  the 
fourth  ended  her  days,  some  nine  years  ago,  at  the 
residence  of  her  son,  Doctor  J.  P.  Widney. 

But  it  is  with  the  career  of  Charles  Maclay  that 
we  are  more  immediately  concerned,  as  the  one  who 
became  the  most  prominent  of  all  the  members  of  this 
widely  respected  family.  After  learning  his  father's 
trade  and  receiving  such  scanty  educational  advan- 
tages as  the  neighborhood  afforded,  Mr  Maclay 
entered  upon  his  work  in  the  ministry  when  only 
nineteen  years  of  age,  making  the  circuit  of  his  dis- 
trict once  in  every  four  weeks,  and  receiving  by  way 
of  stipend  for  his  first  year's  services  the  sum  of  $62. 
As  one  of  the  results  of  this  early  experience  he 
began  to  feel  the  need  of  a  more  liberal  education,  for 
thus  far  his  only  instruction  had  been  received  in  the 
log  school-house  of  his  native  village,  and  from  an 
irascible  and  somewhat  brutal  pedagogue,  fresh  from 
the  highlands  of  Scotland.  He  therefore  entered 


310  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

Dickinson  college,  Carlyle,  whence,  however,  at  the 
end  of  six  months'  study  he  was  ordered  home  by  the 
presiding  elder,  and  told  to  resume  his  duties  in  the 
ministry.  This  was  indeed  all  the  education  he  re- 
ceived, apart  from  the  higher  and  more  valuable  ed- 
ucation which  he  gave  to  himself.  For  many  years, 
and  indeed  throughout  his  lifetime,  he  was  a  thorough 
student,  thus  fully  atoning  for  his  early  deficiencies 
in  this  direction,  and  he  enjoyed  the  reputation  of 
being  one  of  the  best  read  men  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
Neither  in  youth  nor  in  manhood  did  he  ever  acquire 
a  single  bad  habit,  spending  over  his  books  and  in 
self-improvement  the  leisure  hours  which  others  too 
often  squandered  in  frivolity  and  dissipation. 

His  second  circuit,  of  which  Amos  Smith  was  pre- 
siding elder,  embraced  the  county  of  Cumberland  and 
the  head  waters  of  the  Potomac,  an  area  of  at  least 
one  hundred  miles.  Here  he  preached  and  labored 
for  a  number  of  years,  until,  a  weakness  of  the  lungs 
threatening  consumption,  he  was  ordered  by  his  phy- 
sician to  take  a  sea  voyage.  On  reporting  to  his 
superior,  Doctor  McClintock,  he  was  sent  as  a  mission- 
ary to  California,  where  he  arrived  in  the  spring  of 
1851,  journeying  by  way  of  Panama.  Here  he  was 
appointed  to  the  Santa  Clara  circuit,  building  the  first 
protestant  church  in  that  district  and  also  the  first 
one  in  the  county  of  Alameda,  for  which  he  contrib- 
uted largely  of  his  own  means.  He  was  also  chosen 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  university  of  Santa  Clara, 
the  first  one  established  on  the  Pacific  coast.  Thus 
he  remained  until  the  spring  of  1874,  working  with 
all  the  zeal  and  energy  of  his  earnest  nature,  and  with 
a  faithfulness  worthy  of  the  apostles  of  old.  Mean- 
while his  average  stipend  did  not  exceed  $100  a  year. 
To  the  acquisition  of  money,  at  least  so  far  as  it  was 
connected  with  his  profession,  Mr  Maclay  was  en- 
tirely indifferent;  but  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire, 
and  by  some  means  he  must  live.  He  decided  there- 
fore that  in  the  future  his  work  in  the  ministry  should 


CHARLES   MACLAY,  311 

be  gratuitous,  and  to  provide  himself  with  a  livelihood 
opened  a  store  in  the  town  of  Santa  Clara.  But  now 
his  health  gave  way,  the  strain  on  his  nervous  system 
being  too  severe  for  a  man  of  his  somewhat  delicate 
constitution.  Under  medical  advice  he  resigned  his 
connection  with  the  church  and  soon  afterward  devoted 
himself  entirely  to  politics.  Here  it  is  only  proper 
to  remark  that  he  did  so  from  no  motive  of  personal 
gain  or  aggrandizement,  that  his  choice  was  made  in 
the  service  of  his  country  and  by  no  means  to  advance 
his  own  interests,  arid  that  throughout  all  the  years 
of  his  political  life  he  preserved  unsullied  the  honor 
and  integrity  which  marked  his  career  in  the  ministry. 
Long  before  this  date,  Mr  Maclay  had  become 
prominent  as  one  of  the  leaders  among  the  republi- 
cans ;  and  was  indeed  one  of  those  who  assisted  in 
the  organization  of  this  party  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
using  his  influence  to  secure  the  nomination  of  Stan- 
ford for  governor,  one  of  his  fellow- members  in  the 
assembly  during  the  session  of  1861-62,  and  later 
for  four  successive  years  a  member  of  the  state  cen- 
tral committee.  But  it  was  in  the  upper  house  of 
the  legislature,  in  which  he  took  his  seat  on  the  9th 
of  January,  1868,  that  Mr  Maclay  rendered  the 
most  service  to  his  party,  of  which  for  eight  years  he 
was  acknowledged  as  the  leader  in  the  senate.  For 
this  position  he  was  eminently  qualified  by  his  re- 
markable decision  of  character,  his  clearness  of  per- 
ception, and  his  rare  business  capacity.  But  perhaps 
his  influence  was  due  more  than  all  else  to  the  fact 
that  throughout  his  political  career  he  was  never 
known  to  break  a  promise,  making  such  promises 
slowly  indeed,  and  only  when  assured  he  was  in  the 
right;  but  once  made  he  invariably  fulfilled  them  to 
the  letter.  In  this  respect  he  contrasts  most  favor- 
ablv  with  others  of  his  fellow-members  whose  profu- 
sion of  promises  was  too  often  in  painful  contrast 
with  the  tardiness  of  their  fulfilment.  In  Sacra- 
mento and  elsewhere  it  was  commonly  remarked  of 


312  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  i  senator :  "  Once  you  get  Maclay  to  promise  a 
thing  he  will  do  it,  and  you  need  not  trouble  yourself 
any  more  about  it."  Thus  it  is  no  cause  for  wonder 
that  he  succeeded  in  passing  all  the  more  important 
measures  which  he  introduced,  only  those  being  re- 
jected which  he  considered  almost  unworthy  of  his 
advocacy. 

While  in  the  senate  he  was  chairman  of  several 
committees,  being  appointed  in  his  first  session  to  the 
one  on  state  and  county  revenue.  During  this  ses- 
sion also  he  introduced  a  number  of  important  meas- 
ures, among  them  being  an  act  to  encourage  the  early 
construction  of  the  Southern  Pacific  railroad,  and  one 
to  establish  the  university  of  California.  In  this 
connection  it  may  be  mentioned  that  he  attended  in 
the  senate  to  the  affairs  of  the  Central  Pacific,  in  the 
interests  of  Governor  Stanford  and  Colonel  Crocker. 
Of  both  these  men  he  spoke  in  the  highest  terms, 
often  remarking  that  they  never  asked  him  to  intro- 
duce a  bill  of  which  he  did  not  fully  approve,  but  on 
the  contrary,  instructed  him  to  withhold  all  measures 
that  in  his  opinion  were  not  perfectly  just  and  equi- 
table. 

During  the  first  visit  of  the  Japanese  embassy  to 
California,  while  Senator  Maclay  still  held  the  bal- 
ance of  power  in  the  upper  chamber,  a  resolution  in- 
viting its  members  to  visit  the  capital  was  passed  by 
the  house,  but  rejected  by  the  senate.  At  the  sug- 
gestion of  Mr  Charles  De  Long,  who  called  his 
attention  to  the  insult  thus  offered  to  the  embassy, 
he  handed  to  the  governor  a  list  of  the  members 
whose  appointment  he  desired  on  the  committee  ap- 
pointed for  this  purpose,  and  by  a  little  careful  manip- 
ulation finally  succeeded  in  passing  the  resolution, 
himself  addressing  to  the  embassy  the  speech  of  wel- 
come. The  party  was  then  conveyed  to  Sacramento, 
where,  at  the  New  Orleans  hotel,  he  ordered  a  ban- 
quet at  an  expense  of  $2,000,  for  which  outlay  he  was 
only  reimbursed  by  the  legislature  after  long  delay 
and  with  the  greatest  reluctance. 


CHARLES   MACLAY.  313 

As  to  the  senator's  political  views,  it  may  be  stated 
first  of  all  that  he  was  a  throrough  protectionist,  be- 
lieving that  the  policy  under  which  the  country  has 
reached  its  present  condition  of  prosperity  is  the  one 
best  fitted  to  its  future  needs,  and  that  a  return  to  the 
principles  of  free  trade  would  merely  flood  the  country 
with  foreign  manufactures  at  prices  with  which  it 
would  be  impossible  for  our  home  industries  to  com- 
pete. The  Chinese  he  considered  in  the  main  an  in- 
jury to  the  country,  though  admitting  that  there  was 
a  time,  especially  during  the  construction  of  the  rail- 
roads, when  their  presence  among  us  was  a  necessary 
evil.  Later  he  claimed  that  they  were  no  longer 
needed,  and  the  sooner  we  were  rid  of  them  the  better. 
To  the  prohibition  movement,  at  least  under  its  mod- 
ern management,  he  was  strongly  opposed,  believing 
that  in  the  hands  of  the  party  which  controlled  it, 
there  was  little  hope  of  its  success.  The  temperance 
question,  he  considered,  should  be  taken  entirely  out 
of  politics,  and  regulated  by  each  locality  for  itself. 
In  this  opinion  he  was  indorsed  by  many  of  the 
most  liberal  statesmen  and  politicians  of  the  day. 
With  the  prohibition  party  he  was  not  identified 
remaining  throughout  his  political  career  a  stanch 
republican,  though  by  no  means  in  a  partisan  sense. 
His  first  vote  was  cast  for  General  Fremont  when  a 
candidate  for  the  presidency,  and  while  in  the  senate 
he  became  one  of  the  electors  by  whom  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  chosen  for  a  second  term.  At  a  public 
meeting  held  in  San  Jose  after  Lincoln's  assassination, 
a  speech  which  he  made  in  favor  of  Andrew  Jackson 
won  for  him  the  favor  of  the  conservative  democrats, 
by  whom  he  was  requested  on  the  following  day  to 
accept  the  nomination  for  the  state  senate.  This  he 
did,  and  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to  state  that  he  was 
elected,  for  in  all  the  country  round  there  was  no 
one  more  popular  or  more  deserving  of  the  people's 
confidence.  More  than  once  he  was  requested  to 
become  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  senate; 


314  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

but  this  he  always  refused,  for  he  was  never  ambi- 
tious of  such  honors,  nor  would  his  health  endure  the 
hard  winters  of  the  national  capital. 

From  the  arena  of  politics  Senator  Maclay  with- 
drew with  a  reputation  unsullied  by  the  faintest 
breath  of  slander,  but  with  fortunes  shattered  by  in- 
dulging too  freely  his  generous  impulses,  for  it  was 
his  custom  to  befriend  all  who  were  in  need  of  as- 
sistance, believing  each  one  to  be  as  honest  as  himself. 
On  entering  the  senate  he  was  the  possessor  of  an 
estate  which  he  valued  at  from  $70,000  to  $80,000, 
and  at  the  close  of  his  last  term  was  compelled,  as  he 
assured  us,  to  borrow  the  money  wherewith  to  proceed 
to  southern  California.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  however, 
he  was  esteemed  and  trusted  by  all,  and  among  his 
host  of  friends  were  many  whose  purse  and  influence 
were  placed  at  his  disposal.  But  though  always 
ready  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to  others,  he  would 
seldom  accept  such  favors  for  himself;  nor  was  he  in 
fact  in  need  of  them.  So  excellent  indeed  was  his 
standing  in  the  community  that  he  was  enabled  to 
purchase  solely  on  credit  a  tract  of  56,000  acres  in 
the  San  Fernando  valley,  afterward  sharing  it  with 
two  others  whom  he  admitted  as  partners,  and  retain- 
ing as  his  portion  20,000  acres.  This  he  sold  a  few 
months  later  to  a  joint  stock  company  for  the  sum  of 
$400,000,  while  still  retaining  a  large  interest  in  the 
property,  among  its  promoters  being  Judge  Widney, 
H.  L.  Macneil,  and  Mr  Alexander  of  Monterey.  In 
the  water-works  connected  therewith,  which  he  con- 
sidered even  more  valuable  than  the  land  itself,  he 
was  also  a  large  owner.  Thus  at  a  single  bound,  the 
senator  raised  himself  once  more  to  a  condition  of 
affluence;  and  of  his  suddenly  acquired  wealth  he 
made  such  excellent  use  that  none  envied  him  his 
prosperity. 

No  sooner  had  he  come  into  possession  of  this  for- 
tune than  he  resolved  to  devote  a  large  portion  of  it 
to  the  cause  of  the  church,  and  this  he  would  do  at 


CHARLES   MACLAY.  315 

once,  lest  perchance  the  opportunity  should  again 
escape  him.  Sending  for  Bishop  Fowler,  he  explained 
to  him  his  plans  for  establishing  a  theological  college, 
donating  for  this  purpose  $100,000,  to  which,  before 
the  papers  had  been  drawn  up,  he  added  a  further 
sum  of  $50,000.  In  his  appointment  of  trustees  he 
was  careful  to  select  men  of  sound  financial  position 
and  thorough  business  judgment,  while  so  managing 
the  affairs  of  the  institution  that  it  was  impossible  to 
incur  a  single  dollar  of  liability. 

A  handsome  brick  building  with  stone  foundation 
was  erected  in  the  midst  of  a  sightly  location  cover- 
ing some  ten  acres,  and  situated  on  the  line  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  railroad,  about  twenty  miles  north 
of  Los  Angeles.  In  climate  and  beauty  of  scenery 
the  site  is  unsurpassed,  and  perhaps  unequalled  by  any 
on  the  Pacific  coast.  At  an  elevation  of  eleven  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  sea,  it  is  surrounded  on  every 
side  by  the  Sierra  Madre  and  Santa  Monica  ranges, 
entirely  free  from  fogs  or  malaria,  and  with  a  semi- 
tropical  climate,  tempered  by  the  ocean  breeze  and 
the  cool  mountain  air.  At  the  close  of  1888  there 
were  twrevle  students  in  the  theological  department; 
and  if  this  may  appear  a  somewhat  small  attendance, 
it  should  be  remembered  that  in  the  other  five  theo- 
logical seminaries  established  by  the  methodist  epis- 
copal church  in  various  portions  of  the  United  States, 
the  total  number  of  graduates  does  not  exceed  seventy- 
five  a  year.  In  connection  with  this  college  an  acad- 
emy has  recently  been  established,  for  the  benefit  not 
only  of  the  students,  but  of  all  who  wish  to  avail 
themselves  of  its  advantages.  It  is  indeed  a  matter 
for  sincere  congratulation,  not  only  among  the  meth- 
odists  themselves  but  among  the  community  at  large, 
that  through  the  liberality  and  disinterested  devotion 
of  Senator  Maclay,  an  institution  was  thus  organ- 
ized where  men  may  be  trained  for  the  great  work 
of  the  ministry  under  such  conditions  as  will  best 
prepare  them  for  their  future  labors  among  one  of 


316  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  most  cultured  and  intelligent  communities  of  the 
world.  This  work  was  to  the  senator  the  crowning 
labor  of  his  life;  his  later  years  were  passed  in  the 
retirement  of  his  home  in  San  Fernando,  where,  re- 
lieved from  the  cares  of  business  and  politics,  he 
awaited  the  more  perfect  rest  destined  to  reward  his 
generous  deeds  when  his  earthly  career  should  have 
come  to  an  end. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  mention  the 
senator's  views  as  to  the  future  of  southern  California; 
and  on  this  question  he  was  somewhat  of  an  optimist, 
though  not  more  so  than  is  warranted  by  the  pros- 
pects of  that  thriving  region.  So  long  as  people  of 
wealth  and  leisure  continue  to  select  for  residence 
this  favored  section  of  the  Pacific  coast,  escaping  the 
rigors  of  the  eastern  winter  and  making  their  abode 
in  a  region  of  almost  perpetual  spring,  southern  Cal- 
ifornia cannot  fail  to  progress  in  material  and  intel- 
lectual development.  At  no  distant  day  it  is  destined 
to  contain  ten-fold  its  present  population,  arid  one 
composed  of  the  wealthier  and  more  cultured  classes. 
Those  who  have  come  thither  from  the  eastern  states 
almost  by  accident,  and  seeking  merely  recreation, 
have  there  made  their  permanent  home,  building 
handsome  residences  and  taking  a  personal  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  their  adopted  land. 

In  1851,  Senator  Maclay  was  married  to  Miss 
Kate  Paxton  Lloyd,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  with 
whom  he  had  been  several  years  acquainted.  On  the 
womanly  graces  and  many  estimable  qualities  of  Mrs 
Maclay  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  enlarge,  for  among  the 
worthier  classes  of  society  none  are  better  known  or 
more  highly  esteemed.  Of  their  six  children  the  three 
daughters  are  married  to  some  of  the  most  prominent 
citizens  of  California,  and  of  the  two  surviving  sons, 
one,  now  over  thirty  years  of  age,  is  in  charge  of  the 
property  at  San  Fernando,  and  another  is  attending 
school  at  Los  Angeles,  while  the  third  was  laid  at 
rest  some  years  ago  in  the  church-yard  of  Santa 


CHARLES  M  ACL  AY.  317 

Clara.  As  an  instance  of  the  kindness  and  consider- 
ation which  the  senator  displayed  toward  his  family, 
the  following  incident  is  worthy  of  mention.  At  the 
time  when  he  made  his  princely  donation  to  the  col- 
lege which  bears  his  name,  the  members  of  his  house- 
hold expostulated  with  him  for  parting  with  so  large 
a  portion  of  his  means.  It  was  a  few  days  before 
Christmas,  and  on  Christmas  morning  he  said  to 
them:  "  Children,  some  of  you  may  think  I  have 
been  a  little  rash  in  giving  so  much  to  the  church, 
and  now  I  am  going  to  make  you  all  a  little  present 
of  your  own."  Thereupon  he  presented  to  each  one 
a  cheque  for  $10,000,  and  to  his  nephew,  whom  he 
had  adopted,  he  gave  the  same  amount.  Thus  he 
gained  at  once  their  good-will  and  cooperation,  all  of 
them  taking  as  much  interest  in  the  success  of  his 
favorite  project  as  did  the  senator  himself. 

In  appearance  Senator  Maclay  was  a  man  of  impos- 
ing presence,  wanting  only  two  inches  of  six  feet  in 
stature,  and  with  a  frame  in  proportion  to  his  height. 
His  complexion  was  light,  with  clear,  penetrating  eyes, 
of  a  bluish  tint,  and  gray  hair,  originally  of  a  dark 
brown  color.  Perhaps  that  which  most  struck  the 
observer  was  his  remarkable  power  of  conversation,  and 
the  ease  with  which  he  grasped  in  all  its  bearings  the 
subject  presented  to  him,  giving  his  own  views  with 
all  the  sound,  practical  common  sense,  the  force  and 
precision  of  language,  and  the  clearness  of  statement 
for  which  he  was  noted  while  leader  of  the  senate. 
For  the  work  that  he  did  and  the  good  that  he 
accomplished  on  behalf  of  the  church  and  of  his 
adopted  state,  his  name  will  always  rank  among 
the  foremost  of  his  contemporaries;  while  for  the 
munificence  of  his  charities,  and  his  priceless  boon  to 
the  cause  of  education,  he  will  be  remembered  ever- 
more as  among  the  leading  philanthropists  of  the  age. 

Mr  Maclay  died  July  19,  1890,  at  San  Fernando. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

LIFE   OF  ROBERT  M.    WIDNEY. 

SELF-MADE  MEN  AN  INSPIRATION — STUDY  or  A  PORTRAIT — ANCESTRY — 
EDUCATION— WORKING  WESTWARD— THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  HUMAN 
FRAME— EARLY  EXPERIENCES  IN  CALIFORNIA— ORIGINALITY  OF  THOUGHT 
AND  ACTION— EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS— THE  FINANCIAL  PROBLEM. 

WE  present  to  our  readers  one  of  our  self-made 
men.  America  has  produced  so  many  of  this  kind 
that  the  reader  is  familiar  with  their  general  char- 
acteristics. They  are  an  inspiration  to  their  fellow- 
men,  and  are  only  possible  where  the  political  and 
social  condition  of  the  country  are  such  that  every 
avenue  is  open  to  every  man  on  his  own  merits  and 
efforts.  These  men  are  intelligent,  reflective,  ener- 
getic, and  persistent  to  the  last,  and  are  imbued  with 
a  high  sense  of  honor  and  rectitude  in  their  dealings 
with  men.  A  portrait  like  Judge  Widney's  is  a  bi- 
ography in  itself.  The  physical  development  shows 
a  full,  strong,  healthy  organization,  capable  not  only 
of  great  activity  and  working  capacity,  but  also  of 
unusual  endurance  and  continuity  of  effort.  The 
mind  or  spiritual  force  that  really  builds  around  it 
the  material  frame  or  machine  with  which  it  works 
imprints  on  the  whole  body,  and  proclaims  to  the 
world,  its  own  characteristics,  as  an  open  book,  known 
and  read  of  all  men.  In  fact,  each  person  is  at  any 
given  time  only  the  resultant  effect  of  all  of  his  acts 
and  thoughts  down  to  that  date. 

(318) 


ROBERT   M.  WIDNEY.  319 

In  this  case  the  portrait  is  a  correct  composite  pic- 
ture of  the  life  and  thought  that  preceded  it.  Strong 
forces  under  control  of  a  firm  will,  held  with  self- 
possession,  ready  to  be  directed  with  coolness,  precis- 
ion, intelligence,  and  great  persistence  and  endurance 
against  the  object  to  be  overcome,  are  shown  in  well- 
balanced  combination.  Careful,  systematic  training 
and  the  effect  of  high  education  are  apparent.  A 
bodily  organization  free  from  the  eifect  of  inherited 
or  personal  vice,  well  cared  for  under  the  laws  of 
health,  make  a  gift  and  an  inheritance  to  a  man  for 
which  he  should  thank  the  forces  that  operated  in 
his  favor.  Such  are  in  debt  to  nature  and  to  men  to 
aid  in  uplifting  and  upbuilding  society.  Keen  per- 
ception and  cautious  reflection  are  strongly  marked, 
both  in  the  phrenological  development  and  in  the 
lines  of  expression,  the  foundation  of  carefully  inves- 
tigated facts  and  maturely  formed  plans,  prophetic  of 
success.  Or,  wording  the  same  characteristics  in  the 
technical  language  of  psychology,  the  analytical  and 
synthetical  forces  are  strong  and  well  marked.  They 
are  the  powers  by  which  material  and  immaterial 
aggregates  or  masses  are  separated  into  parts  and  re- 
built in  forms  to  suit  the  builder. 

The  record  of  such  is  the  object  of  the  Chronicles 
of  the  Builders;  builders  of  themselves,  builders  of 
society,  and  of  government.  I  have  sketched  these 
few  bold  outlines  that  the  student  may  have  in  mind 
the  results  produced  by  a  course  in  American  life  as 
made  by  not  uncommon  environments  held  to  a  fixed 
line  by  strong  will-power.  The  result  is  the  final 
interpretation  of  the  biography. 

On  the  paternal  side  the  ancestors  came  as  officers 
with  William  the  Conqueror,  from  Germany.  They 
settled  and  became  landed  proprietors  in  England  and 
Scotland,  where  yet  they  hold  their  estates  and  titles 
of  nobility  in  the  family  name.  In  the  religious  per- 
secutions one  branch  of  the  family  was  despoiled  of 
its  property,  and  sought  the  hospitality  of  the  unknown 


320  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

fields  of  America.  Ever  pushing  to  the  frontier 
western  line,  in  about  1800  a  branch  of  the  family 
settled  in  Miami  county,  Ohio,  where  Wilson  Widney, 
the  father  of  Judge  Widney,  was  born.  On  the 
mother's  side — Maclay — the  ancestors  were  officers 
in  King  James'  army,  and  were  with  him  at  the  unfor- 
tunate battle  of  the  Boyne.  The  Maclays  are  one  of 
the  old  Scottish  clans,  some  of  whom  came  to  Amer- 
ica in  an  early  day.  Senator  William  Maclay  was 
Pennsylvania's  first  member  of  the  United  States 
senate.  His  carefully  kept  diary,  recently  published, 
is  the  only  record  of  the  secret  sessions  of  congress  at 
the  time  our  form  of  government  was  moulded.  He 
it  was  who  first  rose  in  congress  and  spoke  against 
the  undemocratic  proposed  title  of  his  Grace  or  his 
Lordship,  as  the  title  of  the  president.  Under  this 
debate  the  president  became  the  legal  title  of  the  na- 
tion's chief  executive. 

From  this  family  name  came  Miss  Arabella  Ma- 
clay, who  became  the  wife  of  Wilson  Widney  of  Ohio, 
in  1835.  Mr  Widney  was  the  second  child  in  a  family 
of  nine,  seven  of  whom  now  live  in  California.  Born 
in  a  log-house  on  a  farm  in  1838,  he  saw  the  early 
pioneer  and  frontier  life  merge  into  the  grand  civili- 
zation of  Ohio.  Boyhood  life  found  him  with  the 
sickle,  reaping  grain.  The  invention  of  the  cradle 
marked  an  era  of  progress,  and  at  thirteen  the  muscles 
of  the  body  were  tortured  with  that  instrument  until 
they  became  muscles  of  iron,  insensible  to  pain.  The 
woodman's  axe,  the  cross-cut  saw,  the  maul,  rail- 
splitting,  and  kindred  tortures  finally  developed  a 
physical  system  of  which  an  athlete  could  well  be 
proud.  The  only  accessible  school  in  those  days 
was  the  country  log  school-house,  with  selected  split 
rails  for  benches,  and  a  long  board  or  slab  for  a  com- 
mon writing-table.  The  teachers  were  equally  pri- 
mary. None  of  the  early  teachers  could  teach 
mathematics  beyond  long  division,  or  in  the  early 
tables  of  federal  money.  When  this  ultima  thule 


ROBERT  M.  WIDNEY.  321 

was  reached,  the  teacher  always  said,  "We  will  now 
turn  back  and  begin  over  again,"  which  was  promptly 
done.  The  scholars  who  insisted  on  going  further 
were  usually  whipped .  and  turned  back  with  the 
class.  Reading,  writing,  spelling,  and  arithmetic 
were  well  taught  in  their  elementary  parts,  but  noth- 
ing beyond.  Parental  care  provided  the  best  books 
of  the  time  on  natural  history,  biography,  and  in  gen- 
eral literature. 

The  novel,  or  works  of  unhealthy  romance,  were  re- 
garded as  the  worst  of  enemies  to  the  successful 
building  of  strong,  manly  characters  fit  for  life's  hard, 
real  work.  The  desire  for  knowledge,  and  trained 
self-reliance,  induced  young  Robert  Widney  to  push 
on  through  the  pages  of  arithmetic  alone.  The  in- 
ability of  teachers  to  explain  had  forced  the  student 
to  think  out  the  reason  of  things,  and  the  ever-present 
question  to  be  solved  was  :  "  Why  did  the  man  who 
made  the  book  put  it  this  way,  and  not  some  other 
way?  How  did  he  know  this  was  the  right  way? 
How  did  he  first  find  out?  Why  can  I  not  learn 
it  as  he  learned  it,  and  then  when  I  have  not 
the  book  with  me  I  can  do  it  as  well  as  he  could? 
He  just  thought  it  out."  These  were  the  keys  that 
unlocked  the  treasures  of  knowledge,  and,  once  in 

O      ' 

possession  of  the  searcher  for  wisdom,  were  never 
lost.  Nothing  was  considered  learned  until  it  was 
fundamentally  learned  in  the  foregoing  manner. 

Algebra,  rudimentary  astronomy,  and  grammar  were 
mastered  in  hours  of  seclusion  and  study. 

In  1855,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  decided  to  push 
farther  to  the  frontier,  as  his  ancestors  had  been  doing 
for  generations.  With  his  saved  earnings  of  about 
$150,  he  bade  good-by  to  the  rugged  surround- 
ings that  had  laid  and  developed  the  principles  of 
life's  success.  Two  years  were  spent,  most  of  the 
time  alone,  on  the  great  buffalo  ranges  of  the  west, 
and  in  the  heart  of  the  Rocky  mountains. 

The  wood-craft  of  Ohio's  forests  led  him  safely  over 


C.  B.— II.     21 


322  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

that  vast  pathless  region  as  if  he  had  been  to  the 
manor  born.  The  high  altitude  and  light,  dry  air, 
with  the  incessant  physical  exercise  of  chasing  game 
and  climbing  mountains,  developed  the  lung  capacity, 
solidified  bone  and  muscle,  until  the  vital  organs  were 
in  the  most  efficient  working  condition.  The  portrait 
on  which  we  commented  shows  a  physical  develop- 
ment, the  result  of  the  preceding  activity.  No  ener- 
vating touch  of  city  life  marred  the  results. 

In  1857  he  crossed  the  plains  on  foot  to  California, 
arriving  with  an  emigrant  train  in  October.  It  was 
at  the  close  of  the  gold-mining  era.  Hundreds  of  re- 
turning miners  were  thronging  eastward,  advising 
emigrants  to  turn  back,  that  the  mines  were  ex- 
hausted, the  valleys  were  deserts,  and  the  country 
played  out. 

Arriving  in  California  with  $1.60,  work  was  sought, 
but  all  demands  seemed  to  be  supplied.  At  a  steam 
quartz  mill  application  was  made  to  cut  cord-wood. 
"  We  have  all  we  want,"  said  the  proprietor.  "  What 
do  you  pay  a  cord  for  cutting  wood  ?  "  "  Two  and  a 
half,  but  we  have  all  wo  want."  "  Well,  if  I  will  cut 
it  for  $1.50  per  cord  will  you  take  it?"  "  O,  yes, 
we  will  take  all  you  will  cut  at  that  figure."  It  was 
not  a  question  of  work,  but  of  too  high  a  price  for 
labor,  that  caused  the  dull  times. 

A  request  for  the  purchase  of  an  axe  and  a  few  days' 
provisions  was  at  first  reluctantly  granted,  but  when 
only  a  few  pounds  of  flour  and  some  bacon,  amounting 
to  about  fifty  cents,  were  selected,  the  proprietor's 
confidence  was  restored,  and  he  insisted  on  a  good  sup- 
ply of  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  and  other  provisions  being 
taken.  This  was  declined,  with  the  remark  that  the 
flour  and  bacon  were  sufficient  until  paid  for.  "  When 
will  you  go  to  work?  "  said  the  proprietor.  "  As  soon 
as  I  can  get  to  the  first  tree  that  is  to  be  cut  down," 
was  the  reply.  As  the  forest  was  on  all  sides,  the 
distance  to  work  was  not  far.  The  proprietor  was  re- 
quested the  next  evening  to  come  out  and  measure 


ROBERT  M.  WIDNEY.  323 

up  the  wood,  as  Widney  wanted  to  pay  his  bill  and 
get  further  supplies.  "  That  is  all  right,"  replied  the 
owner;  "get  all  you  want  at  the  store,  and  when 
you  are  through  I  will  measure  up  the  wood." 

Hands  unused  to  such  work  during  the  preceding 
years  of  hunting  were  soon  blistered  and  raw,  to  such 
an  extent  that  when  the  axe  was  taken  up  in  the  morn- 
ing the  hand  was  not  removed  until  noon,  as  the  flesh 
adhered  to  the  dry  handle  and  would  be  torn  off. 

On  settling  up  the  job  of  wood-cutting,  the  propri- 
etor urged  the  acceptance  of  a  clerkship  in  the  store  or 
a  position  in  the  mill,  both  of  which  were  declined,  as 
other  plans  were  in  view.  Coming  to  the  Santa  Clara 
valley  he  engaged  on  a  farm,  adopting  Ohio  hours  of 
work,  from  4  A.  M.  te  8  P.  M.  Soon  the  farmer  com- 
plained that  his  team  could  not  stand  such  hard  work, 
or  such  deep  ploughing,  wanting  the  soil  scratched  in 
California  style.  He  was  advised  by  his  employe  to 
get  two  teams,  and  as  to  scratching  the  soil,  it  was 
not  the  way  to  raise  good  crops;  and  if  he  wanted  that 
kind  of  work  done  he  must  get  some  one  else,  as  Wid- 
ney was  unwilling  to  work  where  he  believed  it  would 
result  in  a  failure.  The  two  teams  were  secured,  the 
deep  ploughing  continued,  and  the  best  crop  raised 
that  had  ever  been  seen  on  the  land  or  in  that  locality. 

Advanced  wages  and  promotion  were  offered,  but 
knowing  that  knowledge  was  power,  the  offers  were 
declined  for  a  studentship  in  the  University  of  the  Pa- 
cific. Nearly  three  years'  absence  from  study  made 
the  first  few  weeks  very  hard  work,  and  caused  con- 
siderable merriment  among  his  fellow-students,  at  slips 
and  blunders  in  getting  started.  It  was  not  long  until 
pertinacity  and  endurance  began  to  tell  in  the  contest, 
the  lost  distance  was  soon  made  up,  then  a  race  for 
supremacy  in  scholarship.  The  physical  ability  to 
study  from  3  A.  M.  until  11  p.  M.,  every  day  of  the 
session,  soon  wore  out  all  competitors,  and  left  him  the 
acknowledged  student  of  the  college.  An  education 
was  the  object,  and  not  leadership  of  classes,  so  for 


324  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

five  years  his  hours  of  study  were  not  less  than  eigh- 
teen out  of  every  twenty-four.  Here  is  where  the 
years  of  hard  work  in  boyhood,  and  deprivation  and 
hardship  as  a  mountaineer,  showed  their  value  and 
effect. 

Graduating  with  the  honors  of  his  class  in  1863,  he 
was  elected  to  a  professorship  in  the  university.  In 
this  department  his  success  was  evidenced  by  an  offer 
from  the  directors  of  a  life  professorship  and  a  choice 
of  departments,  with  the  further  offer  that  if  he  would 
accept  a  department  of  natural  science,  he  should 
have  full  salary  and  half  time  for  work.  The  offer 
was  declined  for  the  study  of  the  law  and  the  build- 
ing of  his  own  enterprises.  Two  years  were  spent  in 
Austin,  Nevada,  as  a  geologist  and  mining  engineer. 

In  February  1868  he  came  to  Los  Angeles,  then 
a  village  of  some  4,000  inhabitants,  and  foreseeing  the 
great  possibilities  of  southern  California,  at  once  per- 
manently located,  and  laid  his  plans  for  a  professional 
arid  business  life.  Soon  was  built  up  a  fine  real  estate 
business  and  law  practice.  Purchasing  a  printing 
outfit,  he  issued  his  own  real  estate  paper  and  circu- 
lated it  free  over  the  country.  The  law  practice  rap- 
idly increased,  and  soon  he  had  all  that  one  could  do 
working  sixteen  hours  each  day. 

In  November  1868  he  married  Miss  Mary  Barnes, 
a  woman  who  has  made  a  reputation  for  executive 
ability  and  originality  of  plans  wider  than  southern 
California. 

In  1871  was  the  great  Chinese  riot  in  Los  Angeles. 
Several  hundred  rioters  of  the  lower  class  were  en- 
gaged in  a  massacre  of  Chinese.  The  police  and 
sheriff's  forces  were  overawed  by  the  armed  crowds, 
who  were  hanging  Chinese  men,  women,  and  children. 
Deeming  it  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to  stake  his  life 
in  defense  of  the  innocent,  he  called  upon  the  by- 
standers to  aid  in  stopping  the  murders.  "You  lead 
and  we  will  follow,"  was  the  reply.  Instantly  a  charge 
was  made  on  the  rioters,  the  rescuers  laying  hold  of 


ROBERT   M.  WIDNEY.  325 

the  Chinese  victims,  the  rioters  brandishing  revolvers 
and  threatening  death.  It  was  but  the  work  of  a 
few  seconds  for  Widney  to  tear  each  rioter  from  his 
hold  and  bring  him  facing  a  loaded  revolver,  full 
cocked  and  finger  on  the  trigger.  "  Get  out  or  I'll  kill 
you,"  resulted  in  each  one  instantly  retiring  to  the 
sidewalk.  The  rescuing  party  proceeded  for  the  jail. 
A  rapid  consultation  among  the  rioters  resulted  in 
forming  a  line  of  about  fifteen  abreast,  and  a  charge 
to  recover  the  rescued  Chinamen. 

As  the  lines  attempted  to  pass  Widney,  who  was 
holding  a  rear  guard  for  the  rescuers,  his  revolver 
covered  the  charging  line  of  infuriated,  excited  men, 
and  sweeping  it  from  end  to  end,  the  cold  words  qui- 
etly broke  the  still  night  air.  "  Stop !  I  will  shoot 
the  first  man  that  attempts  to  pass."  The  tone  of 
final  decision  is  never  mistaken  by  men.  The  line 
wavered,  halted,  turned,  and  retreated.  Eighteen 
Chinamen  were  rescued  in  succession  from  the  rioters. 
Not  one  was  hanged  in  that  part  of  the  city  after  the 
rescue  was  started.  In  another  part  of  the  city 
eighteen  were  hanged. 

Upon  the  request  of  nearly  the  entire  bar,  Mr  Wid- 
ney was  appointed  judge  of  the  seventeenth  district 
court  of  California  in  1871.  The  duties  of  this  office 
were  discharged  for  two  years.  Judgments  were  en- 
tered up  in  over  six  hundred  cases,  of  which  only  a 
few  were  ever  reversed  by  the  supreme  court.  Jury 
cases  were  almost  entirely  abandoned  in  civil  suits, 
the  attorneys  preferring  the  decision  of  the  court. 

It  was  said  of  him  by  attorneys,  that  he  always  put 
the  merits  of  both  sides  of  each  case  so  clearly  into 
the  record,  that  the  supreme  court  could  always  enter 
final  judgment  for  justice  and  right.  His  hours  of 
court  were  from  nine  to  twelve,  one  to  five,  seven  to 
nine  each  day,  so  long  as  a  case  was  ready  for  trial, 
with  decisions  rendered  usually  the  next  morning,  on 
the  cases  of  the  preceding  day. 

Under  this  organized  and  systematic  action,  the  Los 


326  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

Angeles  bar  became  one  of  the  finest  aids  to  the  court 
in  the  administration  of  justice  that  ever  graced  court 
work.  Having  cleared  up  the  judicial  business  of  his 
district,  and  of  two  others,  leaving  not  one  case  ready 
for  trial,  he  lay  down  the  judicial  ermine,  and  entered 
upon  his  own  business  affairs. 

Matters  of  public  interest  received  his  attention 
and  support,  but  he  always  refused  to  become  a  can- 
didate for  any  office,  notwithstanding  that  leading 
political  organizations  of  both  parties  jointly  offered 
to  nominate  him  for  congress  or  any  other  office  he 
would  consent  to  accept. 

Owing  to  conflicting  rulings,  the  title  to  large  areas 

O  O  O      7  O 

of  state  lieu  lands  was  thrown  into  doubt  and  litiga- 
tion. Being  employed  by  occupants  of  these  lands, 
he  prepared  a  curative  act  to  be  passed  by  congress. 
A  strong  opposition  was  organized  in  California  and 
Washington  city  to  the  passage  of  the  bill.  For 
two  sessions  of  congress  the  battle  was  fought  inch 

O  O 

by  inch;  before  the  committees  on  public  land,  be- 
fore the  United  States  land  department,  before  the 
California  delegation  in  congress,  before  the  state 
land  commissions,  and  finally  by  pamphlets  pro  and 
con  before  every  member  of  congress.  The  electoral 
commission  was  in  session,  with  all  of  its  intense  ex- 
citement, and  legislation  was  almost  at  a  standstill. 
Here  was  where  the  characteristics  of  persistence, 
endurance,  and  never-let-up  counted  for  success. 

At  every  point  Judge  Widney  carried  the  unani- 
mous support  of  every  committee  or  body  of  hearers. 
When  within  a  few  days  of  the  close  of  the  session, 
when  a  single  objection  would  throw  the  bill  over  the 
term,  it  was  taken  up  and  passed  without  a  negative 
vote  or  an  objection  in  either  house.  On  March  ], 
1877,  President  Grant  signed  the  "act  relating  to 
idemnity  school  selection  in  the  state  of  California," 
found  on  page  267  of  United  States  printed  statutes 
for  1877.  Under  its  protecting  power  the  settler  has 
ever  since  rested  in  peace  on  his  land  and  in  his  home. 


EGBERT  M.  WIDNEY.  327 

Judge  Widney  was  usually  employed  by  settlers  in 
their  contest  with  Mexican  grant  owners  claiming  and 
floating  grant  lines  over  public  lands.  In  these  cases 
he  was  uniformly  successful.  Many  of  the  most  valu- 
able colonies  in  southern  California  are  on  lands  thus 
saved  from  fraudulent  grant  claims.  As  a  land  law- 
yer his  reputation  and  success  was  second  to  none  of 
California's  many  able  and  illustrious  attorneys. 

In  1879  he  organized  the  University  of  Southern 
California,  placing  it  on  a  foundation  where  by 
proper  management  it  will  become  one  of  the  leading 
educational  forces  of  southern  California,  The  title 
of  LL.  D.  was  conferred  upon  him  in  1887. 

The  general  conference  of  the  methodist  church  in 
1888  appointed  him  one  of  a  committee  of  twelve, 
consisting  of  four  bishops,  four  ministers,  and  four 
laymen,  to  prepare  a  constitution  for  that  church. 
He  has  organized  and  conducted  to  success  several 
large  land  enterprises  in  southern  California. 

In  1890,  foreseeing  the  coming  financial  troubles  of 
the  country,  he  took  up  the  work  of  a  national  reform 
in  our  system  of  finances.  Concisely  stated,  the  plan 
embraced  an  amendment  to  the  constitution,  fixing 
the  amount  of  issue  of  national  notes,  pledging  the 
wealth  and  faith  of  the  nation  for  its  maintenance, 
providing  against  the  dangers  of  inflation,  contraction, 
or  repudiation,  or  change  of  the  gold  standard  of 
values,  making  gold,  silver,  and  currency  exchange- 
able at  par,  and  a  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  providing 
also  that  at  each  census  the  volume  of  currency  shall 
be  brought  up  to  a  fixed  volume  per  capita. 

A  carefully  prepared  bill  accompanies  the  amend- 
ment. It  provides  for  a  national  banking  system,  for 
the  circulation  of  money,  introducing  the  bonds  of 
states,  counties,  and  a  certain  class  of  cities,  and  real 
estate,  each  under  carefully  guarded  conditions,  as  a 
basis  of  security  from  banks  to  the  government  for 
obtaining  money  for  circulation  in  times  of  special 
demand.  It  also  provided  a  system  whereby  the 


330  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

dard  of  civilization,  we  must  pay  for  it,  and  must  help 
our  educated  laborers  to  a  higher  plane  of  life.  They 
should  not  be  forced  into  competition  with  laborers 
emerging  from  a  low  civilization.  And  here,  in  pro- 
tection of  our  own  laborers  would  it  not  be  well  for 
our  government  to  close  its  doors  to  the  inflooding  of 
foreign  labor?"  "We  should  be  generous,  but  not  so 
generous  that  we  give  our  employment  to  strangers 
and  drive  our  own  sons  and  daughters  of  America 
into  idleness,  shame,  and  want.'* 

Judge  Widney  is  five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and 
weighing  over  two  hundred  pounds.  His  head  is 
massive,  his  features  are  regular  and  clear-cut,  hair 
slightly  gray,  eyes,  which  are  light  blue,  keen  and 
penetrating.  His  style  of  living  is  elegant,  without 
ostentation.  Everything  about  him  shows  the  even 
balance  and  fine  proportion  of  his  mental  structure, 
with  a  capacity  for  every  kind  of  success,  as  his  life 
illustrates.  From  the  earnest,  hard-working  farm- 
boy,  to  the  still  earnest,  polished  man  of  wealth,  po- 
sition, and  influence,  was  a  continuous  upward  and 
healthy  growth.  Such  men  are  the  pride  of  our 
American  institutions,  which  must  flourish  while 
they  rest  upon  such  shoulders,  and  while  they  are 
the  educators  of  the  rising  generation. 


JUOXA^i 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

LIFE  OF  JEREMIAH  FRANCIS  SULLIVAN. 

FROM  OBSCURITY  TO  EMINENCE— EXEMPLARY  PARENTS— THEIR  CHARACTER 
AND  EXAMPLE— THE  VIRTUE  OF  LABOR  AND  INTEGRITY— ADJUDICA- 
TION OF  CELEBRATED  CASES— RELIGION  AND  POLITICS. 

MICHAEL  SULLIVAN  and  his  wife,  both  natives  of  Ire- 
land, came  to  California  when  their  first  child,  Jere- 
miah Francis,  born  at  Canaan,  Connecticut,  on  the 
19th  of  August,  1851,  was  eight  months  old;  that 
is,  in  the  month  of  April  1852.  Mr  Sullivan  was 
a  man  of  sound  judgment,  ready  wit,  and  excel- 
lent memory.  His  early  schooling  in  books  was  of 
the  most  meagre  character,  but  he  may  be  said  to 
have  educated  himself  by  observation  and  reflection, 
and  such  direct  study  as  his  little  leisure  allowed. 
He  became  well  informed  on  more  than  one  subject, 
and  made  himself  familiar  with  the  history  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  a  most  ardent  admirer  of  the 
institutions  of  our  government,  and  he  was  in  spirit 
and  in  practice  a  thorough-going  American.  Though 
never  a  seeker  after  political  office,  he  felt  a  lively  in- 
terest and  took  an  active  part  in  politics.  He  de- 
spised pot-house  tricksters  and  '  bosses,'  and  he  never 
hesitated,  on  occasion,  to  oppose  or  defy  them.  His 
criterion  was  principle,  and  he  would  suffer  any  sac- 
rifice rather  than  compromise  with  dishonor.  A 
farmer  in  the  old  country,  he  became  a  miner 
for  ten  years  in  Nevada  county,  California ;  after 
which  he  was  foreman  of  a  mine  at  Virginia  city, 

(331) 


332  GOVERNMENT -CALIFORNIA. 

Nevada,  the  proprietor  of  which  was  the  republi- 
can candidate  for  a  high  office.  His  democratic  fore- 
man was  told  that  he  was  expected  to  vote  and  work 
for  the  election  of  said  candidate,  or  he  would  lose  his 
situation.  The  alternative  was  serious,  for  he  had 
a  large  family  of  small  children  depending  upon 
his  labor  for  their  support ;  but  standing  firmly 
upon  his  rights  as  a  citizen,  his  duty  to  his  party 
and  to  himself,  he  refused  to  comply  with  the  de- 
mands of  his  employers.  Fortunately  his  manliness 
was  appreciated,  and  he  did  not  lose  his  place,  which 
result,  due  to  the  United  States  senator  in  question, 
is  among  the  best  things  I  have  ever  heard  to  his 
credit.  Michael  Sullivan  died  in  1887,  leaving  a 
widow  and  eight  children,  whose  welfare  had  been  the 
engrossing  and  unselfish  care  of  his  life.  Such  a 
character  and  example  are  a  legacy  superior  to  any 
other  that  a  father  can  leave  to  his  sons.  The  influ- 
ence of  his  life  upon  the  son  about  whom  I  write  is 
very  perceptible,  the  one  being  in  some  respects  a  re- 
production of  the  other.  To  Mrs  Sullivan,  a  mother 
of  pure  mind  and  solid  worth,  exemplary  in  all  the 
walks  of  life,  her  first-born  is  indebted  for  his  ideal 
of  true  womanhood,  and  there  is  no  standard  more 
ennobling  or  wholesome  in  the  development  and  main- 
tenance of  character  among  men. 

Jerry  Sullivan's  childhood  was  passed  at  Nevada 
city,  the  centre  of  a  rich  ruining  district,  in  which 
were  gathered  a  number  of  men  of  extraordinary  tal- 
ent, especially  lawyers,  who  have  subsequently  dis- 
tinguished themselves  throughout  the  Pacific  coast. 
There  he  received  lessons  in  a  private  school  until  he 
was  ten  years  old,  when  his  parents  removed  to  San 
Francisco.  Here  he  entered  the  preparatory  depart- 
ment of  the  college  of  St  Ignatius.  Apt,  tenacious,  and 
thorough,  at  the  end  of  eight  years  he  graduated  with 
the  well-earned  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts,  to  which 
was  added  later  that  of  master  of  arts.  After  gradu- 
ation he  taught  the  classics  and  mathematics  in  his 


JEREMIAH  F.  SULLIVAN.  333 

alma  mater  for  two  years,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
studied  law. 

Two  years  more  in  the  office  of  a  well-known  firm, 
and  in  1874  he  was  admitted  to  practise  in  the  su- 
preme court  of  the  state.  Unwilling  to  be  anybody's 
clerk,  he  opened  an  office  for  himself.  His  practice 
grew,  and  in  1877,  his  talents  and  character  having 
become  recognized,  he  was  elected  to  the  board  of 
education  of  San  Francisco.  It  was  the  time  of  a 
great  scandal  in  the  office  of  the  state  superintendent 
of  public  instruction  regarding  the  sale  of  teachers' 
certificates.  As  chairman  of  the  committee  on  this 
investigation,  he  was  active  and  successful  in  his  efforts 
to  clear  up  the  fraud,  which  resulted  in  the  reform 
embodied  in  the  new  constitution. 

In  the  first  election  held  under  this  new  fundamental 
law,  in  the  autumn  of  1879,  as  nominee  of  the  demo- 
cratic party,  indorsed  by  the  workingmen's  and  new 
constitution  parties,  he  was  elected  superior  judge  by 
a  fair  majority.  Of  the  twelve  judges  chosen,  he 
was  the  youngest.  Among  the  cases  submitted  to 
him  for  adjudication  \vas  that  of  Burke  against  Flood, 
one  of  a  number  of  cases  of  the  stockholders  of  the 
California  and  Consolidated  Virginia  mines  against 

O  O 

the  bonanza  firm,  in  which  the  latter,  as  trustees, 
were  charged  with  fraud  in  the  diversion  and  appro- 
priation of  the  profits  of  the  mines.  This  suit,  upon 
which  the  rest  depended,  the  same  questions  arising 
in  them  all,  and  involving  upward  of  a  million  dollars, 
he  decided  in  favor  of  the  share-holders.  It  was 
never  appealed,  but  was  settled  outside  of  the  court 
by  compromise. 

On  December  24,  1884,  Judge  Sullivan  decided 
the  celebrated  Sharon-Hill  suit,  after  a  trial  of  nearly 
sixteen  months.  Stripped  of  its  technicalities,  it  was 
a  suit  of  Sarah  Althea  Hill  to  establish  her  claim  to 
be  the  wife  of  William  Sharon.  The  principal  evi- 
dence upon  which  she  relied  for  the  proof  of  her  claim 
was  a  written  document  purporting  to  be  a  marriage 


334  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

contract.       The   extraordinary  circumstances  of  the 
case ;  the  vital  questions  of  law  and  morals,  and  the 
millions  of  dollars  involved ;  the  conspicuous  position 
of  the  defendant,  a  United  States  senator,  and  a  man 
of  great  wealth  and  influence  ;  the  uncertain  character 
of  the  plaintiff;    and    the  startling  incidents  of  the 
trial — all  conspired  to  make  it  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated  cases  in  the   annals   of   California    litigation. 
The  judgment  of  the  court  was,  that  the  alleged  con- 
tract was  not  fraudulent,  and  that  it  was  valid  and 
binding.     On  the  direct  appeal  from  the  judgment  of 
the  superior  court  to  the  supreme  court  of  California, 
the  judgment  of  the  superior  court  was  affirmed  Jan- 
uary 31,  1888,  Justice  McKinstry  writing  the  main 
opinion,  which  was  concurred    in    by  Chief  Justice 
Searls   and  associate  justices  Temple  and  Paterson. 
A  report  of  the  case  appears  in  the  seventy-fifth  vol- 
ume of  the  California   Reports,  first  page.     Subse- 
quently, on  an  appeal    from  the  order  denying   the 
motion  for  a  new  trial,  the  doctrine  of  the  decision 
made  in  the  seventy-fifth  California  was    set   aside, 
and  the  order  of  the  superior  court  denying  the  mo- 
tion for  a  new  trial  was  reversed,  and  the  judgment 
of  the  superior  court,  which  had  been  affirmed  by  the 
decision  in  the  seventy-fifth  California,  was  reversed 
July  17,  1889.     A  report  of  the  last  decision  appears 
in  the  seventy-ninth  California,  page  633.     Between 
the  dates  of  the  two  decisions  of  the  supreme  court 
the  personnel  of  that  body  had  been  changed,  three 
of  the  justices  retiring  on  account  of  the  expiration 
of  their  term  of  office.     The  case  in  some  of  its  phases 
was  carried  on  in  the  federal  courts,  and  bore  sensa- 
tional and  tragic  fruits  for  years  afterward.     It  ex- 
cited world-wide,  interest,  and  while  Judge  Sullivan's 
decision  seemed  to  commend  itself  to  public  opinion, 
it    was   criticised    both    favorably    and    unfavorably. 
Among   the   great  journals,  which,  published    at   a 
distance    and    presumably    unbiased,  the    New    York 
Tribune  characterized  it  as  follows  :   "The  decision  of 


JEREMIAH   F.  SULLIVAN.  335 

Judge  Sullivan  in  the  Sharon-Hill  case  may  be  a 
surprise  to  many.  For  while  the  case  has  from  the 
first  been  full  of  surprises,  and  while  the  course  of 
the  plaintiff  and  her  counsel  have  often  been  such  as 
to  create  prejudice  against  her,  there  have  been  so 
many  points  incompatible  with  the  hypothesis  of  bold, 
wholesale  fraud  that  the  most  cautious  observers  have 
hesitated  to  form  definite  conclusions.  But  of  Judge 
Sullivan's  capacity  and  lofty  integrity  there  has  never 
been  any  question  among  the  lawyers  of  California. 
He  bears  the  highest  reputation  for  fidelity  to  duty, 
diligence,  and  intellectual  acumen,  and  any  decision 
from  him  carries  much  more  than  ordinary  weight." 
In  November  1884  he  had  been  reflected  supe- 
rior judge  fora  term  of  six  years,  beginning  January 
1,  1885.  In  1886  he  obtained  the  nomination  for 
associate  justice  of  the  supreme  court  against  the 
strenuous  opposition  of  large  moneyed  interests  and 
the  mercenary  politicians  in  their  service.  In  pre- 
senting his  name  to  the  convention,  a  well-known 
delegate,  whose  remarks  were  received  with  general 
indorsement,  said :  "  In  the  last  election  he  polled 
6,000  votes  more  than  the  head  of  his  ticket.  He  is 
recognized  by  the  master  minds  in  his  profession  as 
their  peer;  but  above  all,  he  possesses  that  highest  of 
god-given  attributes,  honesty.  Take  for  example  the 
celebrated  case  of  Cox  against  McLaughlin,  brought 
from  another  county  to  be  tried  before  him  without 
a  jury.  In  such  cases,  involving  the  most  serious 
responsibilities,  lawyers  and  clients  say,  '  Let  this  man 
be  our  judge.' "  Another  member,  in  seconding  his 
nomination,  said:  "  He  is  regarded  as  a  man  of  intel- 
lect, and  his  decisions  are  accepted  as  honest.  Of 
character  unblemished  in  public  and  private  life,  he 
resembles  that  French  judge  who,  when  Charles  X. 
sent  him  word  that  a  certain  decision  would  be  of 
service  to  the  crown,  answered  :  "This  court  renders 
judgment,  not  service."  The  leading  republican  paper 
said:  "The  convention  went  wild  over  Sullivan. 


336  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

Chris  Buckley  could  not  hold  the  San  Francisco 
delegation  against  him."  But  when  it  came  to  elec- 
tion, the  power  of  his  enemies  proved  too  great  for 
the  vigilance  of  his  friends,  the  people.  In  1888  he 
was  again  nominated  for  associate  justice  of  the  su- 
preme court.  After  another  struggle,  not  unlike  that 
of  two  years  before,  and,  as  in  that  instance,  he  was 
defeated  at  the  polls  by  the  same  influences.  In 
little  more  than  name,  however,  was  his  overthrow  a 
defeat,  for  it  carried  with  it  the  honors  of  victory. 
In  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  notwithstanding  the 
most  ingenious  and  persistent  warfare  of  interested 
newspapers,  and  every  other  means  of  influence  known 
in  politics  employed  against  him,  he  received  a  ma- 
jority of  8,400  votes.  The  campaign  resulted  in  the 
overwhelming  defeat  of  the  democrats  generally,  but 
his  minority  of  votes  in  the  state  was  only  five  hun- 
dred. In  1889,  having  resigned  from  the  superior 
bench  eighteen  months  before  the  expiration  of  his 
term  of  office,  he  resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  part- 
nership with  his  brother,  Matthew  I.  Sullivan,  in 
which  he  is  now  actively  and  successfully  occupied. 

Married  September  13,  1876,  to  Miss  Helen  Bliss, 
the  daughter  of  Mr  George  D.  Bliss,  prominently  en- 
gaged in  the  cattle  business,  and  a  California  pioneer, 
Judge  Sullivan  has  four  children,  two  boys  and  two 
girls.  Of  magnificent  physique,  excellent  health,  and 
abundant  good  humor,  he  naturally  has  many  friends 
whose  society  he  enjoys;  but  being  very  domestic,  he 
finds  home  the  place  of  greatest  comfort.  One  day 
in  seven,  the  sabbath,  he  sets  aside  as  sacred  to  reli- 
gion, and  to  such  form  of  recreation  with  his  wife  and 
children  as  they  prefer. 

As  its  president,  or  chief  executive  officer,  he  has 
been  energetic  in  promoting  the  growth  and  efficiency 
of  the  Young  Men's  Institute,  the  aim  of  which,  un- 
der the  fostering  care  of  the  catholic  church,  is  benev- 
olence, and  the  improvement  of  its  members  morally, 
intellectually,  physically,  and  socially.  He  was  born 


JEREMIAH   F.  SULLIVAN.  337 

and  reared  in  the  catholic  religion,  to  which  his  father 
and  mother  were  devoted.  Proud  of  the  history  of 
the  church,  and  assured  of  its  excellence  as  a  teacher 
of  what  concerns  man  most  intimately  in  the  present 
and  for  the  future,  he  has  never  felt  ashamed  of  or 
faltered  in  his  allegiance  to  this  faith.  Prejudiced  or 
interested  persons  have  not  scrupled  to  contort  his 
religion  into  an  argument  against  him  in  politics,  on 
the  ground  that  Catholicism  is  antagonistic  to  our  in- 
stitutions, though  I  can  discover  no  grounds  to  doubt 
either  the  honesty  or  the  thoroughness  of  Judge  Sul- 
livan's Americanism.  He  is  a  graceful  and  forcible 
speaker;  and  being  called  upon  to  address  the  public 
on  patriotic  occasions,  he  has  more  than  once  defined 
his  attitude  on  this  topic.  His  candor  and  dignity  of 
expression  are  such  that  it  would  seem  to  me  difficult, 
though  the  record  of  his  public  service  were  not  in 
evidence,  for  any  unbiased  mind  to  question  his  integ- 
rity or  his  reasoning.  In  an  address  on  St  Patrick's 
day,  1886,  in  San  Francisco,  he  said  :  "It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  Irish  people,  proscribed  mainly  on 
account  of  their  religion,  should  prize  the  mystic  bond 
that  held  them  together  in  the  embrace  of  an  endur- 
ing nationality.  But  to  no  one  who  has  studied  the 
history  of  Ireland  can  it  seem  strange  that  the  Irish- 
man's loyalty  to  his  race  and  his  faith  should  be  blended 
in  a  manner  so  unique.  It  is  not  because  the  Irish 
catholic  does  not  understand  and  fully  appreciate  the 
relative  allegiance  that  he  owes  to  his  government 
and  his  God.  The  catholic  citizens  of  the  United 
States  clo  not  desire  a  union  of  church  and  state,  a 
blending  of  functions  essentially  distinct.  They  do 
not  wish,  nor  would  they  consent  to,  the  ascendency 
of  any  church  within  the  state.  The  Irishman  would 
be  the  first,  and  rightly  so,  to  resent  the  wrongs  of  a 
system  under  which  he  himself  has  suffered  so  long 
and  so  grievously.  Grattan,  the  leader  and  the  be- 
loved of  all  the  Irish  people,  as  other  leaders  before 
him  and  since,  was  a  protestant.  He  expressed  the 

C.  B.— II.     22 


338  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

sentiment  of  catholic  Ireland  when  he  said  :  '  We  hold 
the  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters  of  religion  to 
be  as  sacred  in  others  as  in  ourselves ';  also  when  he 
said  :  'The  Irish  protestant  can  never  be  free  till  the 
Irish  catholic  shall  cease  to  be  a  slave. ' 


CHAPTER  XV. 

LIFE   OF   PETER   DEAN. 

GENEALOGY — ARRIVAL  IN  CALIFORNIA — MINING  EXPERIENCE— VOYAGE  OF 
THE  SCHOONER  HARRIET — A  ROUGH  NIGHT — MARRIAGE— JOURNEY 
TO  IDAHO — PRESIDENT  OF  THE  PIONEER  SOCIETY — BANK  DIRECTOR — 
STATE  SENATOR— POLITICAL  OPINIONS  AND  MEASURES — THE  WATER 
QUESTION— THE  CHINESE  QUESTION — APPEARANCE  AND  CHARACTER- 


AMONG  the  youngest  of  our  pioneers,  and  yet  one 
whose  career  is  replete  with  interest,  one  who  has 
encountered  more  of  adventure,  more  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune,  and  accomplished  more  in  a  single 
lifetime  than  a  dozen  men  of  common  mould,  is  Peter 
Dean,  miner,  merchant,  contractor,  banker,  politician, 
and  statesman. 

A  native  of  England,  the  genealogy  of  Mr  Dean 
is  traced  far  back  to  the  days  of  the  Saxon  dynasty, 
where  long  before  William  the  Norman  set  foot 
on  its  shores  his  ancestors  were  possessed  of  a  goodly 
domain.  Only  within  the  last  generation  did  the 
last  remnant  of  this  domain  pass  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  family,  and  on  a  portion  of  it  his  father  was 
born.  In  1  829,  when  Mr  Dean  was  not  yet  one  year 
of  age,  the  latter  removed  to  New  England  with 
seven  children,  three  being  added  to  his  family  after 
his  arrival.  Three  of  his  family  became  members 
of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  all  of  them  attain- 

O  ' 

ing  prominence  as  lawyers,  merchants,  and  manufac- 
turers. 

His  education  completed,  Mr  Dean  made  choice  of 

(339) 


340  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

the  legal  profession,  and  to  prepare  himself  was  about 
to  enter  his  brother's  office,  when  in  1848  came  news 
of  the  gold  discovery  in  California,  confirmed  by  later 
reports.  Hither  journeyed  in  the  following  year, 
over  plain  and  ocean,  the  chosen  youth  of  all  the 
land,  the  bold,  the  strong,  the  venturesome,  and 
amono-  them  Peter  Dean,  who  with  eleven  others, 

O  ' 

styling  themselves  the  Gaspee  Mining  company,  set 
forth  by  way  of  Panama,  arriving  in  San  Francisco, 
after  a  long  detention  at  the  Isthmus,  in  June  of 
1849,  on  board  the  steamship  Oregon. 

On  the  Tuolurnne  and  Stanislaus  rivers,  Mr  Dean 
had  the  usual  mining  experience,  meeting  with  more 
than  average  success.  While  his  comrades  were 
pitching  their  first  camp  at  the  mouth  of  Woods 
creek,  near  the  banks  of  the  Tuolumne,  he  gathered 
within  a  few  hours  some  $13  in  gold-dust,  thus  solv- 
ing all  doubts  of  the  existence  of  gold  in  paying 
quantities  in  the  river-beds  of  California.  During 
this  summer  of  1849  not  only  was  the  richness  of 
the  placers  fully  established,  but  somewhere,  it  was 
believed,  in  the  Sierra  was  a  huge  deposit  of  the  shin- 
ing metal  which  the  miner  could  dislodge  with 
powder  and  pick,  could  fill  his  sacks  and  load  his 
mules,  and  return  to  his  native  state  with  gold  enough 
to  build  an  altar  to  the  idol  of  his  heart.  As  one  of 
the  points  where  lay  this  treasure,  it  was  rumored 
that  on  the  south  fork  of  the  Stanislaus  was  a  moun- 
tain so  full  of  gold  that  at  a  distance  of  many  miles  the 
gleam  of  a  metal  was  plainly  visible.  Among  those 
who  were  lured  to  this  western  Ophir  was  Peter 
Dean,  who  set  forth  with  his  company  early  in 
August,  packing  on  his  back  his  blankets,  pan,  and 
pick.  But  after  a  few  days'  march  they  met  a  party 
returning,  whose  report  was  somewhat  discouraging. 
They  had  seen  no  mountain  covered  with  gold;  but 
they  had  seen  plenty  of  mountains  covered  with  red- 
skins. Nevertheless  Mr  Dean  and  his  comrades 
went  on  their  journey,  until  the  savages  becoming 


PETER  DEAN.  341 

troublesome,  and  the  prospect  of  gold  of  the  faintest, 
they  deemed  it  prudent  to  return. 

After  a  further  brief  experience  as  a  miner,  Mr 
Dean  established  a  ferry  at  a  point  on  the  Tuolumne 
just  above  the  present  town  of  Jacksonville.  It  was 
during"  the  winter  of  1850  that  Mr  Dean  nearly  lost 
his  life  by  drowning,  in  an  endeavor  to  save  a  boat 
that  was  being  swept  away  by  the  breaking  of  a  dam 
that  he  had  built  for  mining  purposes,  and  it  was 
only  due  to  his  being  an  expert  and  fearless  swimmer, 
and  to  great  presence  of  rnind,  that  he  escaped  from 
the  seething  torrent.  Disposing  of  the  ferry  in  1851, 
he  returned  to  San  Francisco,  where  he  met  his  friend 
Samuel  Jackson,  a  lumber  merchant  of  that  city. 
Together  they  sailed  in  the  schooner  Harriet  for 
Portland,  where,  after  loading  with  lumber  and  pro- 
duce, and  putting  out  to  sea,  the  vessel  swept  north- 
ward, and  was  driven  by  stress  of  weather  into  an 
inlet  which  by  a  singular  coincidence  bears  the  name 
of  Dean.  Provisions  ran  short,  and  finding  it 

o 

impossible  to  make  their  way  southward,  there  they 
remained  for  more  than  forty  days,  living  almost 
entirely  on  mussels.  Finally,  after  many  hardships, 
and  more  than  one  hair-breadth  escape,  they  succeeded 
in  reaching  Steilacoom.  On  one  occasion,  while  Mr 
Dean  was  approaching  the  shore  in  a  boat,  with  two 
Indians  for  his  companions,  the  craft  filled  with  water, 
and  but  that  he  was  a  practiced  and  powerful  swimmer, 
this  biography  had  never  been  written.  It  was  night, 
and  extremely  dark,  and  cold  and  wet.  The  prospect 
was  somewhat  cheerless,  for  they  seemed  fated  to 
pass  the  hours  without  shelter,  and  in  a  drenched 
condition,  in  this  chill  northern  latitude.  But  pres- 
ently they  reached  a  deserted  camp,  where  a  few 
boards  of  cedar  afforded  a  slight  protection  from  wind 
and  rain.  "I  have  seen  many  a  hard  night,"  says 
Mr  Dean,  "  but  this  was  the  roughest  one  I  ever 
passed  in  my  life." 

In  1852  we  find  Mr  Dean  established   in  business 


342  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

at  Curtis  creek,  in  partnership  with  his  friend  O'Don- 
nell,  and  later  in  Mariposa.  For  several  years  there- 
after his  interests  were  mainly  in  southern  California, 
where  he  engaged  in  various  ventures,  all  of  them 
resulting  profitably.  In  1859-60  he  made  a  visit  to 
the  eastern  states,  and  it  was  during  this  visit  that 
he  gratified  a  latent  spirit  for  adventure  by  chartering 
a  balloon,  and  in  company  with  a  couple  of  friends 
made  an  ascent  from  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  The 
aerial  ship  passed  over  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts, 
and  a  part  of  New  Hampshire.  In  their  third  and 
final  descent  they  landed  on  an  island,  where  the  car 
was  caught  in  a  tree,  the  body  of  the  balloon  becom- 
ing severed  from  its  netting. 

On  his  return  to  California  he  settled  in  Visalia, 
where  he  had  already  invested  the  greater  portion  of 
his  surplus  means.  Here,  $n  the  4th  of  March,  1861, 
the  day  of  President  Lincoln's  inauguration,  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Armstrong,  a  young  woman  greatly  es- 
teemed in  social  circles.  In  the  following  year,  on 
account  of  his  wife's  failing  health,  he  removed  to 
San  Francisco,  where  he  profited  largely  by  the  min- 
ing excitement,  which  was  then  at  fever  heat,  fitting 
out  at  his  own  expense  a  party  which  discovered  the 
Slate  Range  mining  district,  some  fifty  miles  east  of 
Walker  pass. 

About  this  time  gold  was  discovered  in  Idaho,  and 
through  the  advice  of  a  friend,  who  shared  in  the  spec- 
ulation, Mr  Dean  purchased  a  large  band  of  cattle  at 
Eureka,  Humboldt  county,  expecting  to  find  in  that 
territory  a  profitable  market.  During  the  trip,  which 
was  made  in  the  summer  of  1863,  he  encountered 
many  hardships,  being  on  several  occasions  for  two 
or  three  days  without  food  or  water.  His  cattle 
were  scattered,  and  many  of  them  captured  by  Indians, 
two  of  his  men  being  killed  while  attempting  to  re- 
cover them.  The  remainder,  however,  reached  their 
destination,  and  were  disposed  of  at  prices  that  yielded 
a  profit  on  the  venture. 


PETER   DEAN.  343 

After  remaining  until  the  spring  of  1869  in  Idaho, 
where  he  secured  a  large  number  of  government  con- 
tracts, Mr  Dean  disposed  of  his  various  interests,  and 
with  his  family  visited  the  neighborhood  of  Puget 
sound.  Here  he  made  several  judicious  investments 
in  timber  lands  and  business  properties  at  Seattle  and 
Olympia,  feeling  assured  that  with  the  approaching 
completion  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  this  por- 
tion of  Washington  would  be  rapidly  developed.  A 
few  months  later  he  again  removed  to  San  Francisco, 
and  in  that  city,  except  for  a  second  trip  to  the  east 
of  a  year's  duration,  he  ever  afterward  resided. 

In  1871  Mr  Dean  was  chosen  as  director  of  the 
Pioneer  society,  in  1873  its  vice-president,  and  in 
1877  its  president.  After  1875  he  was  called  upon 
to  assume  the  duties  of  the  presidency,  the  election  of 
Mr  Lick,  whom  ill-health  disqualified  from  further  ser- 
vice, being  merely  complimentary.  Mainly  through 
his  efforts  the  society  obtained  from  the  latter  an  un- 
conditional deed  of  gift  to  the  valuable  property  on 
Market  and  Fourth  streets,  which  before  had  been 
so  grievously  hampered  with  conditions  as  to  render 
it  unavailable.  It  was  largely  owing  to  his  exertions, 
also,  that  the  numerous  lawsuits  in  which  the  estate 
was  involved  were  brought  to  a  favorable  conclusion. 

In  the  commercial  and  banking  circles  of  the 
metropolis  Mr  Dean  is  also  widely  known.  When 
the  National  Banking  and  Trust  company  became 
involved,  he  was  appointed  a  director,  in  order  to 
secure  his  assistance  in  winding  up  its  affairs.  For  a 
similar  purpose,  when  the  Masonic  and  the  Mer- 
chants' Exchange  banks  were  compelled  to  go  into 
liquidation,  he  was  elected  president  of  both  institu- 
tions. That  while  attending  to  his  other  manifold 
duties,  he  successfully  filled  such  varied  and  respon- 
sible positions,  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  the  energy 
and  executive  ability  with  which  he  is  accredited  by 
all  his  associates. 

As  to  his  political  career,  Mr  Dean  was  for  many 


344  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

years  one  of  the  foremost  of  republican  leaders.  As 
early  as  1861,  when  a  resident  of  Visalia,  he  was 
nominated  for  the  assembly  on  the  union  ticket,  on 
this  occasion  displaying  the  courage  of  one  who  leads 
a  forlorn  hope,  for  the  district  was  hopelessly  disloyal. 
Throughout  the  war  he  was  an  earnest  and  able  ad- 
vocate of  the  federal  cause,  aiding  with  his  utmost 
endeavor  the  interests  of  his  party,  and  shunning  no 
duty,  however  distasteful,  that  might  promote  its  suc- 
cess. Only  for  a  moment,  and  then  in  name  rather 
than  in  deed,  did  he  appear  to  swerve  from  his  alle- 
giance, when  in  1875  he  became  a  member  of  the 
independent  convention,  the  party  being  called  into 
existence  by  local  issues,  and  by  the  urgent  need  of 
reform.  This  accomplished,  he  returned  at  once  to 
the  ranks  of  the  republicans.  In  18C3  he  was  in  the 
union  state  convention,  and  in  1877  he  was  elected  to 
the  state  senate,  also  in  1878  being  chosen  a  mem- 
ber of  the  republican  state  convention.  In  the  sen- 
ate his  ability  and  experience  in  public  affairs  was 
speedily  recognized,  and  his  vigorous  and  well-directed 
measures  have  left  a  lasting  impress  on  the  annals  of 
the  state.  To  his  skilful  management  is  mainly  due 
the  defeat  of  a  bill  aimed  at  the  public  school  system, 
whereby  instruction  in  modern  languages  and  instru- 
mental music  was  to  be  discontinued,  and  the  able 
speech  which  he  made  in  its  defence  ranks  among  the 
best  of  his  rhetorical  efforts.  In  his  opinion,  what- 
ever tended  to  lower  the  standard  of  the  public  schools 
tended  to  weaken  them  in  the  public  esteem,  and  just 
so  far  operated  to  defeat  the  ends  for  which  they  were 
founded — in  a  word,  tended  to  break  down  this  bul- 
wark of  free  institutions. 

During  his  second  term  the  senator  introduced  and 
secured  the  passage  of  a  resolution  urging  congress 
to  consider  the  policy  of  securing  control  of  one  at 
least  of  the  transcontinental  lines  of  railroad.  On 
this  question  theories  without  number  have  been  ad- 
vanced, but  it  remained  for  a  man  of  his  practical 


PETER  DEAN.  345 

ability  to  formulate  a  plan — embodied  in  the  resolu- 
tions— whereby,  without  serious  interruption  to  the 
existing  order  of  things,  the  government  might  as- 
sume the  ownership  of  the  entire  railroad  system  of 
the  United  States.  The  railroads  play  so  important 
a  part  in  the  economy  of  our  modern  civilization,  the 
prosperity  of  the  country  is  so  largely  and  so  com- 
pletely dependent  upon  them  that,  as  he  considers,  to 
leave  them  in  the  hands  of  private  and  irresponsible 
corporations  is  to  place  the  interests  and  welfare  of 
the  whole  country  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  are 
seeking  solely  their  own  interests.  The  following  is 
a  copy  of  the  preamble  and  resolutions,  which  are 
well  worthy  of  being  preserved  as  the  starting-point 
in  a  line  of  progress  destined  to  be  of  vast  and  wide- 
reaching  influence : 

u  Whereas  it  is  conceded  that  the  most  just  and 
efficient  regulator  of  business  is  untrammelled  competi- 
tion ;  and  whereas  there  are  certain  large  corporations 
which  from  their  magnitude  and  other  self-evident 
causes  are  beyond  the  reach  of  such  influence  ;  and 
whereas,  notwithstanding  the  state  has  the  power, 
the  difficulties  of  efficiently  and  at  the  same  time 
justly  legislating  against  the  tendency  to  extortion 
and  discrimination  on  the  part  of  such  corporations 
are  so  great  as  to  seem  almost  insurmountable;  and 
whereas  the  legislative  conflict  between  the  people  on 
the  one  hand  and  such  corporations  on  the  other  is 
demoralizing  arid  against  the  best  interests  of  society; 
and  whereas,  in  the  case  of  our  great  railroads,  there 
is  no  other  governmental  authority  than  that  of  the 
national  government  competent  to  own  and  control 
such  roads  over  their  entire  length ;  therefore,  re- 
solved by  the  seriate,  the  assembly  concurring,  that 
our  senators  and  representatives  in  congress  be  re- 
quested to  urge  the  consideration  of  the  ownership  by 
the  government  of  one  transcontinental  railroad." 

On  the  water  question  Mr  Dean  took  a  decided 
stand,  introducing  a  bill  which  provided  that  the 


346  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

water  tax  should  be  divided  between  the  rate-payer 
and  property  owner,  that  at  least  one  half  the  burden 
should  be  imposed  on  property.  Although  the  bill 
was  defeated,  he  has  put  on  record  a  measure  for 
which  he  has  at  least  been  accredited  with  the  cour- 
age of  his  convictions,  and  one  that  when  analyzed 
shows  the  soundness  of  his  position.  "  My  views," 
he  remarks,  "have  not  generally  obtained,  being  op- 
posed, as  I  believe,  on  unsound  and  unjust  theories, 
and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  interest  of  property, 
and  against  the  interests  of  the  people.  The  effect 
of  it  has  been  to  array  one  portion  of  the  community 
against  the  other,  and  to  array  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity against  the  policy  of  the  water  company.  The 
rate-payer,  having  to  pay  too  much,  has  naturally 
attacked  the  water  company;  the  property  owner, 
contributing  nothing,  has  been  unwilling  to  make 
any  change ;  and  when  any  person  occupying  a  politi- 
cal or  influential  position  has  desired  to  remedy  this 
abuse,  he  has  been  charged  with  being  in  the  interest 
of  the  water  company.  In  the  board  of  supervisors 
the  property  owner,  to  avoid  any  tax  on  himself,  has 
attacked  the  water  company,  and  the  rate-payer,  pay- 
ing too  much,  has  also  attacked  the  water  company 
— one  from  a  selfish  desire  to  avoid  his  share  of 
the  burden,  and  the  other  from  a  desire  to  lessen  a 
burden  that  wras  onerous  and  unjust.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  the  matter  has  not  been  adjudicated 
and  considered  from  the  stand-point  of  equity  and 
justice ;  and  the  singular  fact  has  existed  of  a  cor- 
poration being  almost  compelled  as  a  matter  of  neces- 
sity to  defend  itself  in  the  board  of  supervisors  and 
elsewhere,  possibly  by  the  illegitimate  use  of  money. 
This  unjust  and  unwise  policy  has  had  and  continues 
to  have  a  pernicious  and  demoralizing  effect  on  our 
local  politics." 

But  perhaps  his  most  important  measure,  though 
one  for  which  with  his  usual  modesty  he  gave  to 
another  the  credit  which  was  justly  his  own,  was  a 


PETER  DEAN.  347 

bill  providing  for  the  registration  of  voters,  and  to 
secure  the  purity  of  the  ballot  and  the  proper  conduct 
of  elections.  By  a  fellow-member  a  second  bill  was 
introduced  containing  only  a  few  modifications  of  the 
one  produced  by.  Mr  Dean,  instead  of  offering  these 
modifications  in  the  form  of  amendments.  By  the 
friends  of  both  each  bill  was  favored,  and  with  the 
result  that  neither  was  likely  to  pass.  Thereupon, 
with  commendable  generosity,  and  with  his  habitual 
regard  for  the  public  welfare,  he  waived  his  personal 
rights  in  the  matter,  yielded  to  his  rival  the  honor 
that  justly  belonged  to  himself,  and  thus  secured  the 
passage  of  a  law  whose  benefits  it  is  impossible  to 
overestimate. 

On  the  question  of  the  remonetization  of  silver, 
which  was  discussed  during  this  term,  he  took  a  decided 
stand  in  the  negative,  believing  that  a  depreciated 
currency  is  always  an  evil,  and  one  that  affects  the 
poorer  and  middle  classes  more  than  the  wealthy ; 
that  it  is  in  fact  merely  robbing  one  class  of  society 
in  order  to  enrich  another. 

On  the  Chinese  question  Mr  Dean  has  often  ex- 
pressed his  opinions,  and  in  no  uncertain  phrase.  "  I 
took  a  very  active  part,"  he  says,  "in  the  efforts  that 
were  made  to  free  the  coast  from  this  curse,  or  at 
least  to  check  its  increase.  I  have  always  maintained 
that  the  presence  of  the  Chinese  among  us  meant 
simply  the  exclusion  of  an  equal  or  larger  number  of 
our  own  population;  that  their  labor  has  supplanted 
just  that  much  white  labor,  has  hindered  to  just  that 
extent  the  growth  of  the  country.  Aside  from  this 
negative  effect,  the  presence  of  a  foreign  element,  and 
one  that  cannot  be  assimilated,  is  a  source  of  weak- 
ness, a  constant  menace  to  our  tranquillity  and  political 
stability.  The  Chinese  do  not  increase  our  prosperity  : 
they  diminish  it;  they  add  nothing  to  our  strength: 
they  take  from  it  much.  They  are  the  weeds  in  the 
fair  garden  of  our  civilization,  whose  presence  is  not 
only  an  unsightly  blemish,  an  offence,  but  means  just 


348  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

that  much  less  of  flower,  just  that  much  less  of  fruit. 
The  Pacific  coast  will  not  enjoy  the  full  measure  of 
prosperity  to  which  its  natural  resources  entitle  it 
until  this  evil  is  excluded  forever  from  its  shores." 

In  a  great  anti-Chinese  meeting  held  some  years 
ago  in  the  Pacific  coast  metropolis,  Mr  Dean  made 
an  able  and  pointed  speech,  setting  forth  the  evil 
effects  of  Chinese  immigration,  and  the  absolute  need 
of  restrictive,  if  not  of  prohibitive,  measures.  We 
may  search  in  vain  for  a  clearer  statement  of  the  case 
than  is  contained  in  that  speech,  and  also  in  his  occa- 
sional letters  to  the  San  Francisco  press.  "  There  is 
no  law  of  population,"  he  says,  "that  is  less  cavilled 
at,  that  is  more  definitely  settled,  than  that  the  immi- 
gration of  one  race,  to  the  extent  of  that  immigration 
approximately,  restricts  any  other  competing  immi- 
gration. In  other  words,  the  presence  of  the  Chinese 
among  us  has  kept  out  that  many  of  our  own  race, 
and,  as  it  is  believed,  several  times  that  number." 
Alluding  to  the  sentimental  platitudes  of  eastern 
philanthropists  he  remarks :  "  When  we  find  that  our 
people  are  being  driven  out  of  employment,  every 
avenue  of  trade  being  taken  up  by  this  Mongolian 
horde,  that  starts  in  upon  the  lowest  level  of  occupa- 
tion and  gradually  absorbs  every  kind  of  labor,  rising 
through  every  grade  until  at  present  there  is  only 
about  ten  per  cent  of  a  large  proportion  of  all  the 
skilled  labor  that  is  done  by  our  people,  they  must 
not  come  to  us  with  this  talk  about  the  rights  of 


men." 


Senator  Dean  has  always  thrown  the  weight  of  his 
influence  on  the  side  of  reform  and  purity  in  politics. 
When  a  member  of  the  independent  convention,  one 
representing  a  party  whose  motto  was  reform,  he 
observed  that  no  mention  was  made  of  a  reform  more 
needed  than  any  other,  and  that  was  in  the  civil  ser- 
vice. He  therefore  offered  as  an  amendment  the 
following  resolution  which,  though  adopted  by  the 
convention  and  referred  to  the  committee,  was 


PETER   DEAN.  349 

through  negligence  or  other  causes  omitted  from  the 
platform:  "Resolved,  that  no  man  should  be  removed 
from  a  simply  appointive  office  for  political  opinion's 
sake,  and  that  the  political  dogma  that  to  the  victors 
belong  the  spoils  is  demoralizing  and  pernicious." 

For  almost  the  lifetime  of  a  generation  Senator 
Dean  has  been  occupied  with  public  duties.  He  is 
an  active  member  of  several  benevolent  associations, 
also  a  past  commander  of  the  California  commandery, 
royal  arch  chapter,  and  it  was  during  his  incumbency 
as  commander  that  he  took  his  commandery  to  Wash- 
ington, District  of  Columbia.  Now,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
nine,  and  with  a  constitution  unimpaired  by  sickness  or 
excess,  he  is  still  capable  of  greater  and  more  sustained 
effort  than  are  most  men  of  half  his  years.  Of  mas- 
sive frame,  and  more  than  medium  height,  with  broad 
shoulders  and  large  girth  of  chest,  with  a  lofty  and 
capacious  forehead,  clear  blue  eyes,  and  hair  of  light 
brown  hue,  his  appearance  is  that  of  a  man  possessed 
of  remarkable  powers  of  mind  and  body,  of  will  and 
intellect.  Erect  and  graceful  in  carriage,  he  is  active 
in  all  his  movements,  though  slow  and  guarded  in 

O  £5 

speech;  in  manner  courteous  and  affable,  and  while 
repelling  undue  familiarity,  never  holding  himself 
aloof  from  others,  however  humble  their  condition. 
His  soundness  of  judgment  and  the  courage  of  his 
convictions,  united  with  remarkable  energy  and  force 
of  character,  have  won  for  him  the  position  and  in- 
fluence which  he  enjoys.  Among  his  friends  he  is 
known  as  one  whose  loyalty  and  steadfastness  have 
never  been  shaken,  however  severely  tried,  while 
among  his  acquaintances  none  are  more  universally 
respected.  For  many  years  he  has  been  a  prominent 
figure  in  political  and  financial  circles,  and  the  fact 
that  in  most  of  the  enterprises  and  associations  with 
which  he  has  been  connected  he  has  been  called  upon 
to  take  the  lead,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the  esteem 
and  confidence  in  which  he  is  held  by  the  community. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

LIFE   OF   CHARLES    FAYETTE   LOTT. 

A  MILITARY  FAMILY— REVOLUTIONARY  DAYS— CHOICE  OF  A  PROFESSION — 
OVERLAND  TO  CALIFORNIA— LAW  PRACTICE— SENATOR  AND  JUDGE- 
OPINIONS  AND  PRINCIPLES— MARRIAGE— CHARACTER  OF  MRS  LOTT— 
THE  FAMILY. 

ON  the  army  list  of  Great  Britain  appears,  during 
the  earlier  years  of  the  reign  of  George  I.,  the  name 
of  Captain  A.  G.  Lotte,  one  of  the  ancestors  of  this 
long-descended  family,  whose  sons,  almost  from  time 
immemorial,  were  members  of  the  military  profession. 

Some  years  before  the  declaration  of  independence, 
Peter  Lott,  the  grandfather  of  Charles  Fayette,  re- 
moved with  his  brother  Abraham  to  the  United  States, 
making  their  abode  in  New  Jersey.  On  the  outbreak 
of  the  revolutionary  war  the  former  organized  a  troop 
of  light  horse,  and  the  latter  was  appointed  captain 
in  an  infantry  company.  Two  of  their  brothers  who 
came  to  this  country  as  officers  in  the  British  army, 
to  fight  for  the  half-demented  monarch  whose  persist- 
ence in  4k  the  right  divine  of  kings  to  govern  wrong  " 
cost  him  the  fairest  jewel  in  his  crown,  it  is  related 
that  one  of  them  was  taken  prisoner  with  most  of  his 
company  by  Captain  Peter  Lotfc,  and  becoming  im- 
pressed with  the  justice  of  the  American  cause,  and 
disliking  to  meet  their  brothers  in  battling  for  the 
right,  they  both  resigned  their  commissions.  Never- 

(  350 ; 


CHARLES   F.  LOTT.  361 

theless,  like  many  of  King  George's  officers  whose 
sympathies  were  strongly  with  the  revolutionary 
cause,  they  would  not  forswear  their  allegiance,  and 
returned  to  England. 

The  war  ended,  Peter  began  farming  in  New  Jer- 
sey, where  was  born  at  the  settlement  of  Cranberry, 
in  1778,  Charles  Francis  Lott,  the  father  of  Charles 
Fayette.  After  receiving  a  medical  education,  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  of  1812,  Charles  Francis  raised 
a  company  of  light  horse  cavalry,  was  made  its  cap- 
tain, and  during  the  war  of  1812  occupied  a  military 
station  near  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware  river,  at  Red 
Bank,  where  he  also  held  the  position  of  divisional 
medical  director.  Later  he  practised  his  profession 
at  Pemberton,  New  Jersey,  where  also  he  became  a 
director  in  the  Farmers'  and  Mechanics'  bank,  located 
at  Mount  Holly.  Meanwhile  he  had  married  Miss 
Edith  N.  Lamb,  the  daughter  of  Colonel  Jacob  Lamb, 
whose  homestead,  adjoining  the  town,  was  a  portion 
of  a  grant  bestowed  by  George  III.  on  Lord  Pember- 
ton, after  whom  the  settlement  was  named.  Here 
was  the  birthplace  of  their  four  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters, of  whom  Charles  Fayette,  whose  natal  day  was 
the  1st  of  July,  1824.  was  with  one  exception  the 
youngest. 

At  Pemberton  the  quaker  element  predominated, 
and  to  this  sect  belong  the  family  of  the  Lambs, 
whose  faith  in  its  tenets  remains  to  this  day  unshaken. 
It  was  for  the  most  part  an  agricultural  community, 
though  in  the  neighborhood  were  iron  mines  and  the 
steel-works,  or,  as  they  were  then  called,  furnaces,  of 
Hanover  and  Speedwell.  Here  Charles  attended 
school  until,  at  the  age  of  ten,  he  removed  with  his 
father  to  Trenton,  where  the  family  settled  on  the 
Waddell  farm,  of  historic  fame  as  the  headquarters  of 
General  Washington  during  a  portion  of  that  ever- 
memorable  winter  when  the  continental  army  suffered 
at  Valley  Forge  all  that  men  can  suffer  from  hardship, 
privation,  and  neglect.  Within  half  a  mile  of  the 


352  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

farm-house  is  the  spot  where  the  great  commander 
landed  after  crossing  from  the  Pennsylvania  shore, 
and  on  the  farm  itself  the  British  and  Hessians  were 
encamped  when  taken  by  surprise  and  captured  or 
routed  at  the  battle  of  Trenton. 

At  Trenton  Charles  continued  his  education,  until, 
in  the  autumn  of  1835,  the  family  removed  to  Quincy, 
Illinois,  and  in  the  following  spring  to  a  farm  near 
St  Charles,  Missouri,  adjoining  that  of  Edward  Bates, 
who  during  the  first  term  of  Lincoln's  administration 
was  appointed  secretary  of  the  interior.  Here  for 
some  two  years  he  studied  at  the  St  Charles  college, 
and  for  five  years  afterward  at  St  Louis  university, 
where  in  1845  his  education  was  completed.  His 
favorite  studies  were  the  classics,  mathematics,  history, 
and  natural  philosophy,  and  in  each  of  them  his  abili- 
ties and  great  zeal  won  for  him  the  medals  of  his 
class.  It  may  here  be  mentioned  that  among  his 
fellow-students  and  classmates  at  the  university  was 
William  T.  Coleman,  who  played  so  prominent  a  part 
in  the  earlier  history  of  California, 

Such  was  the  ancestry,  training,  and  environment 
of  Charles  Fayette  Lott,  and  no  wonder  that  from 
such  environment  was  developed  a  strong  and  self- 
reliant  manhood,  one  firm  of  purpose,  stout-hearted, 
and  with  a  befitting,  though  never  boastful,  conscious- 
ness of  its  own  strength.  Above  all,  he  was  well 
able  to  make  his  way  in  the  world,  and  now  it  was 
time  for  him  to  do  it,  or  at  least  to  set  about  the 
doing  of  it.  The  medical  profession  was  his  father's 
choice,  but  for  this,  after  a  brief  period  of  preparation, 
he  found  himself  unfitted,  or  rather  let  us  say  disin- 
clined. Soon  afterward,  with  his  father's  approval, 
he  entered  the  law-office  of  Williams  and  Johnson,  at 
Quincy,  Illinois,  where  his  eldest  brother,  Peter,  was 
clerk  of  the  circuit  court.  On  the  outbreak  of  the 
Mexican  war,  the  latter,  appointing  Charles  as  his 
substitute,  joined  the  American  army,  and  as  captain 
in  one  of  its  choicest  regiments,  nobly  sustained  at 


CHARLES  F.  LOTT.  353 

the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  the  martial  repute  of  his 
family.  It  was  probably  in  recognition  of  his  services 
that  in  later  years  he  was  appointed  superintendent 
of  the  San  Francisco  mint.  Of  the  youngest  of  the 
brothers,  named  Bushrod  W.,  it  should  also  be  stated 
that  he  is  no  less  known  to  fame  as  the  first  mayor  of 
St  Paul,  Minnesota. 

In  1848,  Charles,  or,  as  we  will  now  call  him,  Mr 
Lott,  who  for  some  time  previously  had  attended  to 
much  of  the  law  business  of  the  firm  of  his  preceptors, 
was  admitted  to  practise  in  the  supreme  court  of 
Illinois.  As  to  his  success  it  need  only  be  stated  that 
he  was  well  able  to  hold  his  own  among  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  the  Quincy  bar,  among 
whom  were  such  men  as  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  In  the  following  year,  how- 
ever, partly  on  account  of  ill  health,  though  more  from 
a  desire  for  travel  and  adventure,  he  joined  a  company 
of  young  men  preparing  for  the  overland  journey  to 
California.  But  to  this  there  were  two  obstacles; 
first,  the  disapproval  of  his  father,  and  second,  the 
lack  of  necessary  funds.  With  some  difficulty  he  ob- 
tained his  father's  permission,  though  never  his  full 
consent,  and  the  means  he  raised  by  mortgaging  a 
piece  of  property  of  which  he  \vas  the  owner.  Mean- 
while he  had  received  from  Mr  Douglas  a  number  of 

O 

books  relating  to  the  country  through  which  they 
were  to  travel  and  whither  they  were  bound,  together 
with  many  valuable  suggestions  as  to  routes  and 
systems  of  travel. 

On  the  1st  of  April,  1849,  the  party  set  forth  from 
Quincy,  Illinois,  across  the  plains,  travelling  with 
mule-teams,  on  which  was  packed  an  assortment  of 
mining-tools.  Their  provision  they  sent  by  steamer 
to  St  Joseph,  where  they  crossed  the  Missouri,  and 
from  that  point,  as  Mr  Lott  expresses  it,  "  all  they 
knew  was  to  steer  westward."  On  the  incidents  of 
their  journey  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  enlarge. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  their  experience  differed  not 

C.  B.— II.    23 


354  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

from  that  of  many  other  pioneers,  whose  sufferings 
from  hunger  and  thirst,  from  hardship  and  privation, 
have  been  a  thousand  times  related.  On  reaching 

O 

the  Humboldt  river,  Lott,  who  had  been  chosen 
captain  of  his  company,  was  appointed  its  spokesman 
at  a  mass  meeting  of  emigrants,  at  which  it  was  de- 
cided that  the  younger  and  unmarried  men  should 
proceed  by  way  of  the  northern  or  Lassen  route. 
Following  this  trail,  and  travelling  by  way  of  Rabbit 
Hole  springs,  Mud  lake,  and  High  Rock  canon, 
thence  by  Deer  creek  to  the  Lassen  rancho  and 
Feather  river,  at  the  end  of  September  they  found 
themselves  at  Long  bar,  when  their  journey  was  at 
an  end. 

At  Long  bar,  where  a  party  of  Oregonians  were 
mining,  Mr  Lott  began  his  search  for  gold,  working 
at  first  with  pick,  shovel,  and  pan,  for  as  yet  the 
cradle  was  not  introduced  near  this  locality.  The 
winter  he  passed  at  Sacramento,  recruiting  his  health, 
and  returning,  mined  with  fair  success  on  the  branches 
of  the  Feather  river. 

In  the  autumn  of  1850  the  county  of  Butte  was  or- 
ganized, and  as  lawyers,  especially  good  lawyers,  were 
scarce  in  those  days,  he  decided  to  practise  his  profes- 
sion. Though  always  retaining  an  interest  in  the 
mines,  his  career  as  a  working  miner  was  at  an  end ; 
and  now  for  some  forty  years  he  has  been  recognized 
as  one  of  the  foremost  legal  practitioners  of  northern 
California.  Except  for  the  judge  of  the  district  court, 
Mr  Lott  was  the  only  one  acquainted  even  with  the 
forms  of  legal  procedure,  and  hence  at  the  organiza- 
tion of  this  court  was  assigned  to  him  the  task  of 
instructing  the  officers  in  their  several  duties.  The 
clerk  knew  nothing  of  what  was  required  of  him,  and 
had  probably  never  been  inside  a  court-room,  and  as 
to  the  sheriff,  his  knowledge  of  law  extended  not  be- 
yond the  making  of  an  arrest. 

About  this  time  Mr  Lett's  attention  was  called  to 
political  questions,  which  were  then  for  the  first  time 


CHARLES  F.  LOTT.  355 

assuming  importance  in  this  section  of  the  state. 
Though  his  first  vote  had  been  cast  for  Lewis  Cass, 
during  the  campaign  which  gave  to  President  Taylor 
the  presidential  office,  his  sympathies  have  always 
been  with  the  democrats.  To  him  is  due  the  organi- 
zation in  his  district  of  the  democratic  party,  of  which 
for  a  time  he  was,  indeed,  the  only  leader,  though  it 
was  not  until  a  year  or  two  later  that  party  lines  were 
distinctly  drawn,  and  as  yet  there  were  no  very  im- 
portant points  at  issue. 

In  the  autumn  of  1851  he  was  elected  to  the  state 
senate,  among  his  fellow-members  being  several  whose 
names  have  since  become  household  words  in  Califor- 
nia, such  men  as  Broderick  and  Frank  Soule,  as  Jacob 
Fry  and  T.  B.  Van  Buren.  During  his  first  session — 
the  third  of  the  senate — he  framed  and  succeeded  in 
passing  a  bill  providing  that  the  state  printing  should 
be  let  by  contract,  and  to  the  lowest  responsible  bid- 
der, thus  securing  a  reduction  to  about  one  fifth  of  the 
charges  prevailing  before  this  measure  was  enacted. 

Largely  to  his  efforts  was  due  the  defeat,  in  the 
fourth  session  of  the  senate,  of  the  infamous  water- 
lots  bill,  the  object  of  which  was  to  authorize  the  sale 
by  the  state  for  a  nominal  sum  of  a  number  of  valu- 
able lots  in  San  Francisco,  below  Montgomery  and 
Sacramento  streets,  at  that  time  submerged,  but 
where  now  is  centred  the  wholesale  traffic  of  the 
metropolis.  After  an  angry  and  protracted  debate 
the  vote  resulted  in  a  tie,  and  the  bill  was  defeated 
only  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  lieutenant-governor, 
somewhat  to  the  surprise  and  sorely  to  the  disgust  of 
its  supporters.  For  his  determined  and  persistent 
opposition  to  this  measure  Mr  Lott  was  roundly 
abused ;  but  to  himself  and  to  his  friends  it  has  ever 
been  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  he  did  thus  oppose  it 
with  all  the  strength  of  his  influence,  the  force  of  his 
logic,  and  the  power  of  his  eloquence.  At  the  time 
he  was  denounced  as  a  filibuster  by  the  very  men  to 
whom  that  epithet  of  right  belonged ;  but  is  now  uni- 


356  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

versally  acknowledged  that  his  attitude  befitted  one 
by  whom  the  interests  of  the  state  were  always  pre- 
ferred to  his  own. 

Declining  a  renomination,  at  the  close  of  his  term 
Mr  Lott  devoted  himself  to  his  profession,  forming  a 
partnership  with  Warren  T.  Sexton,  which  continued 
until  1858,  when  the  latter  was  elected  judge  of  the 
ninth  district  court.  Following  the  seat  of  county 
government,  located  first  at  Hamilton,  then  at  Bid- 
well  bar,  and  finally  at  Oroville,  he  erected  there  the 
first  brick  office  building  in  Butte  county,  and  in  that 
building,  since  1856,  has  been  his  law-office. 

In  1869  he  was  chosen  judge  for  the  second,  for- 
merly the  ninth,  judicial  district,  composed  of  the 
counties  of  Butte,  Tehama,  Plumas,  and  Lassen,  and 
in  this  position  won  for  himself  a  reputation  such  as  is 
accorded  only  to  those  who  mete  out  justice  with  judg- 
ment, fearlessly,  and  with  strict  impartiality.  Says 
one  who  admired  or  rather  appreciated  him:  " Judge 
Lott  has  a  clearer  conception  of  the  legal  side  of  an 
issue  than  any  man  I  ever  met,  and  though  on  one  or 
two  occasions,  which  I  distinctly  remember,  the  law 
has  appeared  somewrhat  at  variance  with  the  strict 
justice,  few,  if  any,  ever  doubted  the  correctness  of 
his  interpretation  of  our  codes.  This  is  the  result,  I 
think,  principally  of  an  excellent  education  and  a  well- 
balanced  mind."  Retiring  from  the  bench  at  the  close 
of  his  term,  after  a  year's  vacation,  passed  for  the 
most  part  in  central  and  southern  California,  he  re- 
sumed the  practice  of  the  profession  of  which  he  is 
to-day  one  of  the  most  able  and  distinguished  mem- 
bers. 

During  his  administration  he  took  no  active  part 
in  politics,  believing  that  the  urgent  furtherance  of 
political  views  and  interests  not  consistent  with  the 
duties  of  the  bench ;  a  sound  conviction,  and  one  that 
other  members  of  the  judiciary  would  do  well  to  lay 
to  heart.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  his  career  as  a 
politician,  or  rather  as  a  statesman,  came  to  an  end 


CHARLES   F.  LOTT.  357 

with  the  close  of  his  term  in  the  senate,  except  that 
in  1859  he  allowed  himself  to  be  elected  chairman  of 
the  democratic  county  committee,  holding  that  office 
throughout  the  civil  war.  Though  a  stanch  demo- 

O  ^ 

crat,  he  was  ever  a  union  democrat,  striving  earnestly, 
and  not  in  vain,  to  hold  his  party  to  their  allegiance. 
In  his  political  views,  however,  he  is  opposed  to  any 
extension  of  the  federal  power,  for,  as  he  justly  re- 
marks, "the  less  centralization,  except  for  matters 
necessarily  federal,  the  better." 

On  other  national  questions,  and  especially  on  that 
of  immigration,  his  opinions  are  equally  pronounced. 
As  to  the  exclusion  of  Chinese,  he  considers  that 
while  it  may  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  laboring 
classes,  still,  while  other  objectionable  elements  are 
admitted,  it  is  not  right  that  they  alone  should  be 
rejected.  u  Immigration,"  as  he  pointedly  observes, 
"  without  limit  as  to  class  or  number,  is  not  to  be 
desired  in  the  case  of  any  nation";  an  opinion  which 
is  shared  by  all  the  more  advanced  thinkers  of  the 
day.  He  favors,  moreover,  a  complete  revision  of  the 
naturalization  laws,  and  would  bestow  the  suffrage 
only  on  such  foreigners  as  thoroughly  understand  and 
are  in  perfect  sympathy  with  the  American  constitu- 
tion, with  American  institutions,  and  with  the  Ameri- 
cans themselves  as  a  nation  and  a  community. 

As  to  the  tariff  question,  his  motto  is  "  a  tariff  for 
revenue  only,"  and  on  this,  as  on  most  political  issues, 
his  opinion  coincides  with  the  accepted  tenets  of  his 
party,  not  merely  because  they  represent  the  creed  of 
the  democracy,  or  that  as  such  he  is  to  obey  them, 
but  because  they  form  a  part  of  his  convictions,  and 
on  those  convictions  he  has  the  courage  and  confi- 
dence to  act.  The  judge  has  never  been  one  of  those 
who  follow  blindly  in  the  beaten  track  because  others 
have  done  so  or  are  doing  so.  More  than  half  a  cen- 
tury of  western  frontier  life,  or  of  life  in  the  still 
farther  west,  has  fostered  in  him  the  faculty  of  self- 
reliance,  of  independent  thought  and  action.  It  has 


358  GOVERNMENT-CALIFORNIA. 

ever  been  his  custom  to  hear  both  sides  of  a  question, 
without  deciding  prematurely  on  either,  and  if  his 
conscience  or  his  judgment  forbade  him  to  act  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  party,  there  were  none  more  ready 
to  say  so,  to  adopt,  irrespective  of  party,  the  course 
that  appeared  to  him  right,  though  it  might  not  always 
be  expedient. 

In  connection  with  fraternal  and  other  associations, 
no  less  than  for  his  reputation  as  a  lawyer,  a  judge, 
and  a  statesman,  Mr  Lott  is  widely  known,  and  as 
widely  respected,  throughout  the  county  and  state  of 
his  adoption.  One  of  the  society  of  pioneers,  and 
since  1850  a  master  mason,  he  has  been  for  many 
years  a  member  of  the  royal  arch  chapter,  being 
elected  past  high-priest  and  appointed  to  the  con- 
vention of  high-priests.  To  him  as  grand  commander 
of  the  grand  commandery  of  knights  templar  of  Cali- 
fornia was  largely  due  the  success  of  the  conclave  held 
in  San  Francisco  in  1883.  By  him  most  of  the 
arrangements  were  made  which  increased  even  the 

O 

world-wide  repute  of  the  golden  state  for  generous  and 
free-hearted  hospitality.  To  his  efforts,  also,  as  past 
commander  of  the  commandery  at  Oroville,  is  partly 
due  the  organization  of  those  at  Oroville,  Chico,  and 
Lassen. 

As  president  of  the  Oroville  board  of  trade  and  of 
the  Oroville  citrus  association,  both  of  which  in  a 
measure  owe  to  him  their  existence  and  prosperity,  he 
has  contributed  largely  to  the  common  good.  It  was 
not  until  recent  years  that  the  culture  of  citrus  fruits 
in  northern  California  was  established  as  a  business, 
though  in  the  gardens  of  several  of  the  residents 
orange-trees  yielded  an  abundant  crop.  At  the  sug- 
gestion of  a  visitor  who  was  present  at  the  first  citrus 
fair  held  in  Sacramento,  one  thoroughly  versed  in 
horticulture,  a  grove  was  planted  as  an  experiment  on 
the  northern  side  of  the  Feather  river.  The  result 
gives  promise  of  vast  developments,  and  that  Butte 
county  will  contain  erelong  one  of  the  great  citrus 
belts  of  the  state  is  now  beyond  a  peradventure. 


CHARLES  F.  LOTT.  359 

It  was  in  1861  that  Mr  Lott  began  to  turn  his 
attention  to  other  matters  than  law  and  politics.  In 
that  year  he  purchased  on  Big  Butte  creek  a  rancho 
of  some  2,000  acres,  forming  a  portion  of  the  Neal 
grant,  and  this  he  still  retains,  planting  it  for  the 
most  part  in  grain  and  vegetables.  In  mining  ven- 
tures he  has  invested  freely,  among  others  in  the 
Gravel  Range  mine,  a  property  yielding  steady 
returns,  and  located  by  himself  in  1866  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Plurnas  and  Butte  counties.  Of  a  mine 
discovered  at  Willow  bar  in  1869,  and  afterward 
called  the  Yellow  creek  canal  and  mining  com- 

o 

pany,  he  was  also  the  locator.  On  the  construction 
of  a  canal  to  convey  to  it  the  waters  of  Yellow 
creek,  with  a  view  to  work  the  mine  by  hydraulic 
process,  Mr  Lott  expended  $80,000;  but  in  the  spring 
of  1887,  when  his  task  was  completed  and  work  begun 
on  the  claim,  he  was  served  with  an  injunction  under 
the  provisions  of  the  mining  debris  act.  True,  not  a 
pound  of  tailings  could  possibly  have  reached  the  Sac- 
ramento river,  even  from  mines  much  nearer  to  its 
channel ;  but  the  law  must  be  obeyed,  even  if  it 
retards  the  development  of  the  country's  resources, 
and  places  its  veto  on  those  who  expend  their  time 
and  means  on  harmless  and  productive  enterprises. 

In  conclusion,  a  word  may  be  said  as  to  the  judge's 
wife  and  family,  without  which  the  story  of  his  life, 
no  more  than  his  life  itself,  would  be  complete.  In 
May  1856  he  married  Miss  Susan  F.  Hyer,  a  native 
of  Philadelphia,  where  her  father  was  a  leading  mer- 
chant and  manufacturer,  one  of  those  who  have  given 
to  that  city  its  commercial  supremacy  and  its  industrial 
development.  The  lady  comes  of  a  good  American 
stock,  her  grandfather  holding  the  rank  of  colonel  in 
the  revolutionary  war,  and  being  afterward  elected  to 
the  Cincinnati  society,  of  which  her  father  is  still  an 
hereditary  member.  A  woman  of  kindly  and  char- 
itable disposition,  whose  presence  is  always  welcome 
to  the  sick,  the  aged,  and  distressed. 


360  GOVERNMENT— CALIFORNIA. 

Of  their  children  two  only  survive — Charles  Fayette, 
who  was  born  in  April  1873,  and  Cornelia  Dear,  whose 
birthday  was  in  January  1876.  The  son  is  a  steady, 
bright,  industrious  youth,  whose  abilities  and  tastes 
incline  to  agriculture,  and  nowhere  than  in  Butte 
county  could  he  find  a  better  field  for  their  develop- 
ment. With  the  advantages  of  an  excellent  educa- 
tion, and  of  the  training  of  tender  and  devoted  parents, 
we  may  safely  predict  that  he  will  prove  himself 
worthy  of  their  example,  and  of  the  reputation  already 
accorded  to  him  in  the  city  and  state  of  his  birth. 
The  daughter  is  a  favorite,  and  deservedly  so.  Though 
somewhat  high-spirited,  she  has  much  of  her  mother's 
temperament,  and  has  shown  herself  in  all  respects 
deserving  of  the  care  and  affection  bestowed  on  her 
from  earliest  childhood.  Among  her  accomplishments 
is  a  remarkable  aptitude  with  pencil  and  crayon,  and 
by  those  who  have  criticised  them  it  is  said  that  her 
sketches  would  do  credit  to  one  of  twice  her  years. 

To  old  Californians  the  face  and  figure  of  Judge 
Lott  have  long  been  familiar,  with  his  five  feet  ten 
inches  of  stature,  his  compact  and  massive  frame,  his 
broad,  high  forehead,  his  intellectual  features,  bluish 
gray  eyes,  and  the  silken  white  hair  and  flowing  beard 
which  add  to  his  dignified  appearance.  In  manner  he 
is  natural,  free  from  the  slightest  trace  of  affectation, 
and  while  treating  all  men  as  his  equals,  there  is 
something  in  his  quiet  air  of  dignity  which  at  once 
repels  undue  familiarity.  In  speech  he  is  impressive, 
with  an  excellent  command  of  language,  and  in  enun- 
ciation clear  and  distinct.  His  tastes  are  of  the  sim- 
plest, and  in  perfect  keeping  with  his  character.  A 
constant  reader,  he  is  also  a  great  admirer  of  music, 
painting,  statuary,  and  other  branches  of  art,  while 
enjoying  with  the  keenest  zest  all  that  is  beautiful  in 
nature. 

Throughout  his  long  and  useful  career,  Judge  Lott 
has  been  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word  a  citizen,  one 
whose  acts  and  aims  have  ever  tended  to  his  country's 


CHARLES  F.  LOTT.  361 

welfare  rather  than  to  his  own.  While  among  our 
argonauts  there  have  been  many  noble  specimens  of 
manhood,  there  are  few  whose  names  are  so  worthy 
to  be  handed  down  to  posterity  as  examples  of  what 
may  be  accomplished  by  well-directed  effort,  when 
combined  with  the  many  sterling  qualities  of  which 
he  is  the  possessor.  As  a  lawyer,  a  judge,  a  states- 
man, as  a  leader  in  all  enterprises  tending  to  the  public 
good,  as  one  to  whom  northern  California  owes  much 
of  her  prosperity,  much  of  her  assured  and  brilliant 
prospects,  to  him  must  be  conceded  a  foremost  rank 
among  the  builders  of  our  western  commonwealth. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

GOVERNMENT— INTERIOR   STATES. 

ERA  OF  WONDERS — NEW  AND  STRANGE  COUNTRIES  AND  PEOPLES — ARIZONA 
AND  NEW  MEXICO— AMERICAN  OCCUPATION  — SETTLEMENT  OF  UTAH- 
MORMONS  AND  GENTILES— POLITICAL  AFFAIRS— EXPLORATION  OF  NE- 
VADA—CARSON VALLEY— THE  COMSTOCK  LODE— STATEHOOD— INDIAN 
TROUBLES— SENATORS— TAXATION  AND  REVENUE. 

AN  era  of  marvels  followed  the  conquest  of  Central 
America  and  Mexico.  All  previous  explorations 
sank  into  insignificance  as  the  wonders  of  the  new 
world  became  disclosed.  When  the  occupation  of 
central  Mexico  had  been  consummated  by  the  Span- 
iards, and  the  wildest  imaginings  hitherto  conceived 
of  exhaustless  treasures  and  wonderful  phenomena 
were  verified  by  realities,  no  story  was  too  marvellous 
to  gain  credence.  If  the  ocean  had  at  last  been  made 
to  yield  up  the  long-kept  secret  of  its  far-distant 
boundary  in  the  west,  this  surely  could  only  be  the 
stepping-stone  to  the  solution  of  more  startling  mys- 
teries beyond.  The  most  extravagant  rumors  were 
consequently  accepted  with  a  credulity  that  admitted 
not  of  doubt  or  questioning.  Hence,  Ponce  de 
Leon's  search  for  the  fountain  of  youth,  and  the  com- 
mencement of  a  series  of  expeditions  in  New  Spain, 
undertaken  for  the  discovery  of  the  secrets  and  hidden 
treasures  of  unknown  lands,  and  of  a  passage  through 
the  continent  to  the  Pacific. 

Though  most  of  these  expeditions  were  based  on 
chimerical  projects,  they  had  for  result  the  explora- 
tion of  vast  regions  in  different  directions,  and  the 
ever- widening  extension  of  Spanish  supremacy.  To 

(362) 


CABEZA  DE  VAC  A,  NIZA,  AND  CORONADO.  363 

exaggerated  reports  and  consequent  military  expedi- 
tions was  due  the  discovery  of  the  country  called  at  a 
later  date  Nuevo  Mexico,  in  which  the  modern  terri- 
tories of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  are  comprised. 
In  1536  Cabeza  de  Vaca  arrived  at  Culiacan  in  Sina- 
loa  from  the  shores  of  Texas.  He  and  three  others, 
were  the  only  known  survivors  of  Narvaez'  expedition 
in  1528  along  the  gulf-coast.  After  years  of  captivity 
and  wandering  they  made  their  way  almost  across  the 
continent,  bringing  with  them  the  news  that  they  had 
heard  of  great  and  wealthy  cities  lying  somewhat  to 
the  north  of  the  route  they  had  pursued.  This  rumor 
induced  the  Italian  Franciscan  friar,  Marcos  de  Niza, 
to  go  in  search  of  them,  taking  with  him  a  negro 
named  Estevanico,  one  of  the  survivors  alluded 
to,  and  who  being  sent  in  advance  of  Niza  actually 
visited  the  towns  of  Cibola.  Estevanico,  however, with 
most  of  those  who  accompanied  him,  was  here  killed 
by  the  natives,  and  Niza,  having  only  obtained  a  dis- 
tant view  of  the  cities  from  a  mountain  summit,  re- 
turned to  Mexico,  bringing  with  him  an  exaggerated 
account  of  their  size  and  grandeur.  His  report  led  to 
Coronado's  military  expedition  in  1540-2,  during 
which  an  immense  extent  of  territory  was  explored, 
and  the  discovery  made  of  the  existence  of  an  agricul- 
tural people,  considerably  advanced  in  civilization, 
and  residing  in  widely  scattered  groups  of  community- 
towns,  located  in  the  valleys  of  the  upper  Rio  Grande, 
the  Gila,  and  Colorado  Chiquito,  and  their  tributaries. 
But  as  to  the  main  object  of  the  enterprise,  the  ad- 
venturers met  only  with  disappointment.  They  failed 
to  find  palaces  whose  walls  were  wainscoted  with 
gold  and  whose  floors  were  tessellated  with  the  prec- 
ious metals,  or  towns  in  which  golden  utensils  were 
used  by  the  inhabitants  for  the  commonest  household 
purposes.  They  only  discovered  industrious,  thriving, 
and  peaceably  inclined  communities,  whom  they 
soon  made  hostile  by  their  outrageous  treatment ; 
on  their  departure  they  left  behind  them  a  just  and 


364  GOVERNMENT— ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

righteous  hatred  and  dread  of  the  white  strangers. 
To  these  aboriginal  communities  the  Spaniards  gave 
the  name  of  los  Pueblos,  the  development  of  which 
has  already  been  discussed  in  the  introduction  to 
these  volumes. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
with  the  exception  of  the  futile  expeditions  conducted 
by  Fray  Agustin  Rodriguez,  who  suffered  martyrdom 
in  1581,  by  Antonio  Espejo,  a  rich  citizen  of  Mexico, 
in  1582-3,  and  one  in  1591  by  Gaspar  Castano  de  Sosa, 
acting  lieutenant-governor  of  Nuevo  Leon,  though 
several  fruitless  projects  were  entertained,  to  effect 
the  permanent  occupancy  of  the  country,  nothing  was 
accomplished  until  1598-9,  when  Juan  de  Onate 
achieved  the  conquest  of  the  region  which  now  con- 
stitutes the  territory  of  New  Mexico.  Ofiate  was 
the  son  of  a  conquistador,  and  was  married  to  a 
grand-daughter  of  Cortes,  descended  from  the  royal 
line  of  Montezuma.  A  rich  and  prominent  resident 
of  Zacatecas,  supported  by  the  wealth  and  influence 
of  the  leading  men  in  Nueva  Galicia,  he  proposed 
to  raise  a  force  of  200  men  at  his  own  expense,  and 
take  possesion  of  the  country  for  the  king  of  Spain,  in 
consideration  of  being  made  governor  and  captain- 
general  of  the  acquired  territory,  with  grants  of 
land  and  certain  honors  and  titles.  His  propo- 
sition was  accepted,  and  after  much  delay  caused 
by  the  opposition  to  his  scheme  made  by  rival  com- 
petitors, he  advanced  up  the  Rio  Grande  by  way  of 
El  Paso  del  Norte,  and  took  possession  of  the  terri- 
tory which  is  now  New  Mexico,  with  little  difficulty, 
the  only  trouble  being  a  revolt,  after  submission,  of 
the  pueblo  of  Acoma,  which,  however,  was  taken  and 
destroyed,  the  strength  of  the  tribe  being  forever 
broken  by  the  sanguinary  punishment  inflicted. 

In  1604-5  Onate  explored  the  region  comprised  in 
the  present  territory  of  Arizona,  but  effected  no  per- 
mament  occupation,  and  after  his  return  from  that 
expedition  nothing  is  known  of  him  except  that  in 


ONATE,  POPE,  VARGAS,  CUBERO,  ANZA.  365 

1608  he  had  ceased  to  be  governor  of  New  Mexico. 
At  some  unknown  date  during  the  period  from  1605 
to  1616  the  villa  of  Santa  Fe  was  founded.  For 
eight  decades  the  Spaniards  ruled  the  land  without 
opposition,  and  spiritual  conquest  having  advanced 
step  by  step  with  military  subjugation,  numerous  mis- 
sions were  founded.  The  government  of  the  province 
was  a  strictly  military  one,  and  therefore  arbitrary 
arid  oppressive,  while  the  rigor  of  ecclesiastical  rule 
caused  still  greater  offence  to  the  simple  and  super- 
stitious Pueblos,  who  clung  tenaciously  to  their  abo- 
riginal faith.  Burdened  with  heavy  tributes  in  pro- 
duce and  personal  labor  exacted  from  them  by  the 
authorities,  they  were  incessantly  subjected  to  cruel 
punishments,  inflicted  by  the  friars  upon  backsliders 
and  infidels,  while  numbers,  accused  of  practising 
in  secret  the  unholy  rites  of  their  ancient  religion, 
were  put  to  death  as  sorcerers.  Under  this  two-fold 
system  of  tyranny  even  the  peace-loving  Pueblo  agri- 
culturalists were  driven  to  desperation,  and  urged  by 
their  priests,  who  still  retained  great  influence,  in 
August  1680  they  broke  out  in  revolt. 

The  moving  spirit  in  this  insurrection  was  an  Indian 
of  San  Juan  named  Pope,  who  claimed  to  have  formed 
an  alliance  with  the  spirit  el  Demonio  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  who  took  such  precautions  to  keep  his  plot  secret 
that  he  even  slew  his  own  son-in-law  on  suspicion  of 
treachery.  So  sudden  was  the  insurrection,  and  so 
effective  in  its  operation,  that  the  Spaniards  were  liter- 
ally swept  from  New  Mexico.  Santa  Fe  wras  besieged 
and  abandoned,  and  as  the  plan  was  one  of  extermina- 
tion, neither  man,  woman,  nor  child,  neither  priest  nor 
layman  was  spared.  The  settlers  south  of  Santa  Fe 
being  timely  warned,  made  their  escape,  but  over  four 
hundred  victims,  including  twenty -one  missionaries, 
were  massacred.  For  ten  years  the  Indians  held  pos- 
session of  New  Mexico,  during  which  time  Pope  be- 
came unpopular  and  was  deposed.  In  1688,  however, 
he  was  again  elected  chief,  but  died  soon  afterward. 


366  GOVERNMENT-ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

It  was  not  until  1696  that  the  country  was  finally  re- 
conquered by  Diego  de  Vargas,  who  was  appointed 
governor  and  captain-general  by  the  king,  and  entered 
upon  his  duties  early  in  1691.  Vargas  was  energetic, 
brave,  and  zealous,  and  at  a  later  date  was  rewarded 
for  his  services  by  the  king  bestowing  on  him  the  title 
Marques  de  la  Nava  de  Brazinos.  While  honor  was 
thus  awaiting  him,  he  was  being  treated  outrageously 
in  New  Mexico.  In  1696  his  term  of  office  expired, 
and  he  was  succeeded  by  Pedro  Rodriguez  Cubero, 
who,  on  charges  of  embezzlement  and  mismanagement 
preferred  by  the  cabildo  against  Vargas,  gratified  his 
personal  enmity  by  confiscating  the  ex -governor's 
property  and  casting  him  into  prison,  where  he  re- 
mained for  nearly  three  years.  On  being  released  in 
1700,  the  charges  against  him  were  fully  investigated 

O  O  i/O 

at  Mexico,  and  he  was  exonerated  from  all  blame. 
Being  reappointed  governor  of  New  Mexico,  he  as- 
sumed office  in  November  1703 ;  but  in  the  following 
April,  while  entering  upon  a  campaign  against  the 
Apaches,  he  was  attacked  by  a  sudden  illness,  and 
died  at  Bernalillo.  He  was  buried  in  the  parish 
church  at  Santa  Fe. 

From  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
submission  of  New  Mexico  was  permanent,  serious 
trouble  being  caused  only  by  the  Apaches  and  other 
savage  tribes.  When  the  northern  provinces  of 
Mexico  were  organized  in  1776-7  as  the  Povincias 
Interims,  the  change  only  slightly  affected  New 
Mexico.  It  merely  deprived  the  governor  of  his 
title  of  captain-general  and  made  him  subordinate  to 
the  comandante-general  instead  of  to  the  viceroy, 
without,  however,  interfering  much  with  his  military 
rule.  The  first  regularly  appointed  governor  under 
the  new  system  was  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza,  who  as- 
sumed office  in  1778.  Anza  was  a  native  of  Sonora, 
a  man  of  excellent  character  and  considerable 
ability,  while  his  great  experience  in  Indian  warfare 
made  him  specially  adapted  to  the  position  of  ruler 


CONCHA,  PEREZ,  GONZALEZ,  ARMIJO.  367 

over  a  frontier  province.  He  engaged  in  a  successful 
campaign  against  the  Comanches,  which  resulted  in 
the  killing  of  their  famous  chief  Cuerno  Verde  and 
other  prominent  leaders.  During  his  administration 
small-pox  carried  off  over  5,000  of  the  Pueblos,  which 
lessened  their  population  to  such  an  extent  that  Anza 
considerably  reduced  the  number  of  the  missions  by 
consolidation,  a  measure  which  provoked  much  oppo- 
sition on  the  part  of  the  friars.  He  was  succeeded 
in  1789  by  Fernando  de  la  Concha. 

Down  to  the  termination  of  Spanish  supremacy  no 
change  was  effected  in  the  system  of  government  in 
New  Mexico;  it  remained  essentially  military,  the 
governor  being  both  political  and  military  chief.  The 
remoteness  of  the  province  shielded  it  from  the  in- 
fluence of  the  great  struggle  for  Mexican  independence, 
and  few  events  occurred  to  interrupt  the  monotony  of 
life  in  the  province  with  its  attendant  helplessness. 
With  the  exception  of  some  increase  in  the  Spanish 
population  at  a  few  points,  the  settlements  remained 
in  the  same  condition,  neither  progressing  nor  retro- 
grading. No  new  developments  of  industries  are 
observed ;  the  friars,  having  lapsed  into  indolence  and 
indifference,  took  no  care  to  increase  the  number  of 
Indian  proselytes,  or  instruct  the  neophytes ;  there 
were  no  colleges  or  public  schools,  arid  the  recording- 
pages  of  educational  development  are  all  but  blank. 

New  Mexico  remained  one  of  the  provinclas  in- 
ternas  until  January  31,  1824,  when  it  was  joined  to 
Chihuahua  and  Durango,  and  the  Estado  Intern o 
del  Norte  thereby  formed.  In  July  following,  how- 
ever, it  was  segregated  and  became  a  territory  of  the 
republic,  with  practically  no  change  in  the  old  form 
of  government.  A  kind  of  legislature,  known  as  the 
diputacion  provincial,  was  formed,  but  it  had  little 
or  no  influence,  the  power  of  the  governor  remaining 
almost  as  arbitrary  as  ever.  In  1835  Perez  became 
governor.  Hitherto  that  office  had  been  generally 
filled  by  natives  or  old  residents  in  New  Mexico,  and 


368  GOVERNMENT— ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

as  Perez  was  a  stranger,  an  unreasonable  prejudice 
was  entertained  against  him,  which  culminated  in  a 
revolt  in  1837-8.  The  outbreak  took  place  in  a  north- 
ern town,  and  the  rebels,  largely  composed  of  Pueblos, 
assembled  at  La  Canada  in  great  numbers,  and  on 
August  3d  issued  a  plan.  The  unfortunate  Perez, 
who  was  really  an  excellent  man,  marched  against 
them  with  all  the  force  he  could  muster,  but  when  he 
met  the  enemy  most  of  his  men  deserted  him,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  flee  with  a  few  companions.  A  few 
days  after  he  was  killed  with  a  dozen  of  his  associates, 
and  his  head  sent  into  the  rebel  camp.  Santa  Fe 
was  then  taken  possession  of  by  the  insurgents,  and 
Jose  Gonzalez,  an  Indian  of  Taos,  was  elected  gov- 
ernor. The  predecessor  of  Perez  had  been  Manuel 
Armijo,  who,  moved  by  ambition,  is  accused  of  having 
secretly  fomented  the  revolt  which  he  hoped  to  turn 
to  his  own  advantage.  And  such,  indeed,  was  the 
case.  On  the  election  of  Gonzalez,  he  pronounced 
against  him,  raised  a  force  and  marched  to  the  capital, 
Gonzalez  retiring  northward.  Having  caused  him- 
self to  be  recognized  as  acting  governor,  he  reported 
the  condition  of  affairs  to  the  Mexican  government, 
which  sent  him  a  reenforcement  of  300  men  under 
Colonel  Justiniani.  In  January,  1838,  the  rebels 
were  defeated  in  battle,  and  Gonzalez  and  several  of 
his  associates  were  captured  and  shot.  Armijo  was 
rewarded  for  his  crafty  and  self-interested  dealings  in 
connection  with  this  revolt  by  being  confirmed  for 
eight  years  in  the  position  of  governor  and  coman- 
dante-general. 

Durino-    his   administration   New   Mexico   was  in- 

O 

vaded,  in  1841,  by  an  expedition  fitted  out  by  Lamar, 
the  president  of  the  republic  of  Texas,  which,  with- 
out a  shadow  of  right,  had  assumed  the  Rio  Grande 
as  its  territorial  boundary.  Governor  Armijo  dis- 
played great  energy  in  adopting  measures  to  repel  the 
intruders;  and  favored  by  the  famished  and  distressed 
condition  to  which  they  were  reduced  by  their  long 


BENT  AND  CALHOUN.  369 

and  devious  march  across  the  intervening  deserts,  he 
compelled  them  to  surrender  without  firing  a  shot. 
The  Texans  were  sent  to  Mexico,  where  they  were 
confined  in  different  prisons,  and  were  finally  released 
by  Santa  Anna.  This  inroad  was  succeeded,  in  1843, 
by  an  attempt  by  Colonel  Jacob  Snively  to  capture 
the  caravan  bound  to  Santa  Fe,  which  was  unusually 
rich  that  year;  the  expedition  proved  a  failure,  how- 
ever, owing  to  the  precautions  taken  by  Armijo  for  its 
protection. 

When  the  war  between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico  broke  out,  Santa  Fe  was  taken  possession  of 
by  General  Kearny,  in  August  1846,  without  opposi- 
tion, Governor  Armijo,  who  understood  well  that 
effective  resistance  was  hopeless,  having  retired  south- 
ward after  making  a  mere  demonstration  to  oppose 
the  enemy  in  Apache  canon.  Kearny  presently  issued 
a  proclamation  announcing  his  intention  to  hold  the 
department  as  a  part  of  the  United  States  under  the 
name  of  the  territory  of  New  Mexico,  and  for  many 
days  representatives  of  other  towns,  and  of  the  Pue- 
blos, presented  themselves  and  offered  submission. 
Having  organized  a  civil  government,  the  general  at 
the  end  of  September  set  out  for  California.  After 
his  departure,  matters  did  not  progress  smoothly,  and 
by  December  previous  rumors  of  intended  revolt  as- 
sumed so  definite  a  nature  that  many  arrests  were 
made.  The  leaders,  however,  Tomiis  Ortiz  and  Diego 
Archuleta,  escaped  to  the  south.  Colonel  Price  was 
at  this  time  in  command  of  the  military  force  num- 
bering 2,000  volunteers,  whose  overbearing  conduct, 
frequently  culminating  in  outrage  and  openly  ex- 
pressed contempt  for  the  Mexican  population,  brought 
upon  them  hatred  and  a  desire  for  revenge. 

The  smouldering  embers  of  revolt  were  constantly 
fanned  by  a  few  conspirators,  and  in  January,  1847, 
burst  into  a  flame  at  Taos,  where,  on  the  14th,  Gov- 
ernor Bent,  Sheriff  Lee,  and  three  others  were  killed 
by  the  Pueblos  of  that  place.  The  revolt  now  as- 


C.  B.— IT.     24 


370         '  GOVERNMENT— ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

sumed  some  magnitude,  but  was  locally  suppressed  by 
Colonel  Price  after  several  engagements,  which  ter- 
minated in  the  capture  of  Taos,  February  4th.  Hos- 
tilities, however,  continued  in  the  east  of  the  terri- 
tory till  July,  while  the  Apaches  and  other  wild 
tribes  became  exceedingly  troublesome  on  the  Santa 
Fe  trail. 

Military  rule  in  New  Mexico  properly  ended  when, 
by  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  May  30,  1848, 
the  territory  became  a  part  of  the  United  States; 
but  the  authorities  at  Washington  decided  that  the 
government  in  power  at  the  termination  of  the 
war  must  continue  until  congress  should  provide  a 
territorial  government.  This  state  of  things  lasted 
till  September,  1850,  when  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
and  a  small  part  of  Colorado  were  formed  into  a  terri- 
tory under  the  name  of  New  Mexico.  The  new  gov- 
ernment went  into  operation  in  March,  1851,  the 
first  governor  appointed  by  the  president  being  James 
S.  Calhoun,  who  had  resided  in  the  country  for  some 
years  as  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs.  Governor 
Calhoun,  who  was  inaugurated  March  3d,  was  hon- 

O 

orable  in  his  intentions,  and  possessed  considerable 
executive  ability,  but  being  intemperate  was  for  some 
time  unfitted  by  illness  for  the  discharge  of  his  duties, 
and  died  on  his  way  to  the  States  in  June  1852. 

New  Mexico,  thus  organized,  became  the  ninth  mili- 
tary department  of  the  United  States,  a  force  of 
from  1,400  to  1,800  men  being  distributed  down  to 
1858,  at  widely  distant  forts.  After  that  the 
number  of  the  troops  was  increased  to  from  2,000  to 
4,000,  occupying  some  twelve  or  fifteen  military  posts. 
The  duty  of  these  detachments  was  to  protect  the 
inhabitants  from  their  Indian  foes ;  but  when  the  vast 
extent  of  territory  which  they  were  expected  to  guard 
is  taken  into  consideration,  it  will  be  recognized  how 
thoroughly  inadequate  was  the  force  employed.  The 
number  of  wild  Indians  within  the  borders  of  New 
Mexico  was  not  less  than  17,000,  while  savage  tribes 


SLOUGH  AND  CHIVINGTON.  371 

in  the  south,  west,  and  north  frequently  extended 
their  raids  into  the  territory.  The  consequence  was 
that  the  country  was  hardly  ever  free  from  Indian 
depredations,  though  the  troops  in  hundreds  of  toil- 
some campaigns  did  all  that  was  possible,  with  their 
limited  numbers,  to  suppress  them.  The  government 
at  Washington  adopted  no  definite  policy,  and  for 
years  this  petty  system  was  pursued.  When  the 
civil  war  broke  out  New  Mexico  was  invaded  by 
Texan  confederates,  and  the  troops  were  withdrawn 
from  their  service  against  the  Indians,  the  people  be- 
ing left  to  defend  themselves  as  best  they  could;  but 
on  the  expulsion  of  the  invaders  in  1862  General 
Carleton  turned  his  attention  to  the  subjugation  of 
the  savages,  and  initiated  at  last  a  plan  of  opera- 
tions. Two  modes  of  procedure  had  long  been  sub- 
jects of  discussion,  namely  extermination  or  feeding. 
Carleton  combined  these  propositions;  he  entered 
upon  an  energetic  campaign,  taking  the  savage  tribes 
in  detail,  chastising  them  severely  in  the  field,  and  re- 
moving all  captives  to  Bosque  Redondo,  where  Fort 
Sunnier  had  been  established.  All  propositions  of 
peace  were  promptly  rejected  ;  truces  and  treaties, 
which  in  the  past  had  been  so  repeatedly  broken  by 
the  savages,  were  no  longer  entertained,  and  a  system 
was  inaugurated  which,  though  slow  in  its  working, 
was  finally  successful.  Their  general  incarceration, 
however,  was  but  slowly  accomplished,  after  numerous 
experiments,  amidst  mismanagement  and  want  of  fore- 
sight, and  daring  which  were  frequent  abandonments 
of  the  reservations  by  refractory  Indians  and  renewals 
of  depredations. 

At  the  close  of  1861  New  Mexico  was  invaded  by 
Texan  confederates  under  the  command  of  General 
Sibley,  a  major  in  the  United  States  army,  who  had 
espoused  the  southern  cause.  Negro  slavery  did  not 
exist  in  the  territory,  nor  did  the  inhabitants  wish  for 
its  establishment.  It  is  true  that  two  forms  of  sla- 
very existed,  that  of  Indian  captives  who  were  bought 


372  GOVERNMENT— ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

and  sold,  and  the  system  of  peonage,  or  voluntary 
servitude  for  debt,  which  involved  no  loss  of  civil 
rights4  no  sale  of  services,  or  legal  entailment  of  ser- 
vitude on  the  children  of  peons.  The  first  system 
was  based  on  old-time  custom  only,  and  was  abolished 
by  the  emancipation  proclamation  of  1865;  while 
peonage  was  sanctioned  by  territorial  law  and  long- 
prevailing  Mexican  usage.  It  was  abolished  by  act 
of  congress  in  1867.  The  inhabitants  of  New  Mexico, 
therefore,  had  no  leaning  to  secession  principles;  at 
the  same  time,  apathetic  as  they  had  ever  been  with 

regard  to  institutional  chano-es,  their  lovalty  to  the 

.  .  "      , 

union  was  not  expressed  with  exuberant  enthusiasm. 

They  were  quite  willing  to  let  matters  take  their 
course  and  accept  the  result,  provided  they  were  un- 
molested in  their  dolce  far  niente.  From  this  indif- 
ference, however,  they  were  roused  by  the  invasion 
of  their  territory  by  their  old  foes,  the  Texans,  their 
national  hatred  of  whom  was  above  all  political  con- 
siderations. Thenceforth  their  adherence  to  the 
union  was  emphatically  expressed  and  actively  main- 
tained. Though  at  first  the  invaders  carried  all  be- 
fore them,  defeating  the  federal  troops  and  New 
Mexican  volunteers,  and  occupying  Santa  Fe,  they 
sustained  a  repulse  at  Apache  canon,  March  28, 
1862,  at  the  hands  of  Colorado  volunteers,  who, 
under  Colonel  Slough  and  Major  Chivington  had 
hastened  to  the  assistance  of  New  Mexico.  This  was 
the  death-blow  to  the  attempt  of  the  Texan  confed- 
erates to  get  possession  of  the  territory.  Sibley 
retreated  southward,  and  by  the  beginning  of  July 
New  Mexico  was  freed  of  the  invaders.  Apart  from 
the  calamity  of  war,  this  invasion  entailed  additional 
disaster  upon  the  country,  occasioned  by  the  compul- 
sory withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  the  different  forts 
to  the  seat  of  war.  On  the  departure  of  the  soldiers 
the  Indians  threw  off  all  restraint  and  raided  the 
country  with  impunity.  This  condition  of  affairs 
lasted  till  1863,  when,  as  already  narrated,  General 


GOVERNORS.  373 

Carleton  took  the  matter  in  hand  and  checked  their 
depredations. 

In  1863  Arizona  was  detached  and  organized  into 
a  separate  territory,  since  which  time  New  Mexico 
has  been  ruled  by  a  succession  of  eight  governors, 
namely,  Henry  Connelly,  Robert  B.  Mitchell,  Wil- 
liam A.  Pyle,  Marsh  Giddings,  Samuel  B.  Axtell, 
Lewis  Wallace,  Lionel  A.  Sheldon,  and  Edmund  G. 
Ross,  who  entered  office  in  1885.  Most  of  these 
rulers  discharged  their  duties  honestly,  and  with 
a  watchful  care  for  the  requirements  and  welfare  of 
the  territory.  Governor  Mitchell,  however,  became 
embroiled  in  discord  with  the  legislature  to  such  an 
extent  that  laws  not  approved  by  him  were  sent  to 
congress  for  confirmation,  while  a  petition  for  the  ab- 
rogation of  his  absolute  veto  power  was  granted  by  an 
amendment  of  the  organic  act  in  1868.  With  regard 
to  the  members  of  the  legislative  assemblies,  the  ma- 
jority has  always  been  represented  by  a  large  prepon- 
derance of  natives  of  Spanish  origin,  notably  so  during 
later  years.  Frequent  efforts  have  been  made  to 
obtain  the  admission  of  the  territory  into  the  union 
as  a  state,  but  though  the  population  is  sufficient  to 
authorize  such  a  change,  political  considerations  have 
hitherto  defeated  New  Mexico's  aspirations. 

As  narrated  in  the  introduction  to  these  volumes, 
Spanish  and  Mexican  occupancy  of  the  territory  now 
called  Arizona  was  confined  to  a  very  limited  area, 
extending  from  Tucson  southward.  Wild  Indian 
tribes  remained  in  undisputed  possession  of  the  main 
portion  of  the  region,  while  the  Pueblo  communities 
were  unmolested,  except  by  the  occasional  intrusion 
of  zealous  friars,  whose  efforts  to  extend  the  domains 
of  the  church  in  that  direction  were  signally  unsuc- 
cessful. So  precarious,  indeed,  was  the  hold  of  the 
settlers,  even  in  the  small  district  occupied  by  them, 
that,  on  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  by  the  United 
States  in  1848,  most  of  the  settlements  had  been 


374  GOVERNMENT -ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 

abandoned,  Tucson,  Tubac,  and  a  few  other  settle- 
ments alone  having  been  able  to  withstand  the 
encroachment  of  the  Indians.  In  December  of  the 
same  year  Tubac  also  was  abandoned  after  sustain- 
ing an  attack  in  which  several  lives  were  lost. 

With  the  commencement  of  the  aggressive  war 
waged  against  Mexico  by  the  United  States,  the  un- 
known, regions  of  Arizona  began  to  be  visited  and  ex- 
plored by  Americans  In  1846  General  Kearny, 
marching  from  Santa  Fe,  crossed  the  entire  width  of 
the  territory  to  the  junction  of  the  Gila  with  the 
Colorado ;  a  few  months  later  he  was  followed  by 
Lieutenant-colonel  Cooke  with  the  Mormon  battalion, 
and  after  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  a  tide  of 
immigrants  swept  across  the  country,  which  thereafter 
was  destined  to  be  no  longer  a  land  closed  against 

O  v^5 

explorations.  As  early  as  November  1849,  a  ferry- 
boat was  placed  on  the  Colorado  at  Camp  Cal- 
houn,  by  Lieutenant  Cave  J.  Coutts ;  and  it  has  been 
estimated  that  the  number  of  immigrants  who  crossed 
that  river  before  the  end  of  1851  was  not  less  than 
60,000.  In  March  of  that  year  Fort  Yuma  was  es- 
tablished by  Major  Heintzelman  on  the  California 
side,  and  in  1852  the  first  steamer,  the  Uncle  Sam, 
was  placed  on  the  Colorado.  In  1851  the  first  gov- 
ernment exploration  of  northern  Arizona  was  made 
by  Captain  L.  Sitgreaves,  who,  proceeding  from 
Zuni,  crossed  the  country  just  above  the  35th  parallel 
to  the  Colorado,  down  which  river  he  travelled  south 
to  Fort  Yuma,  where  he  arrived  at  the  end  of  No- 
vember. Lieutenant  A.  W.  Whipple,  who  was  en- 
gaged in  a  survey  for  the  Pacific  railroad,  crossed 
somewhat  south  of  Sitgreaves'  route  in  1853-4. 
These  and  following  explorations  opened  the  way 
later  to  prospectors,  who  soon  discovered  that  this 
hitherto  unknown  country  was  fabulously  rich  in 
mineral  wealth. 

Meantime  the  immigrants  into  California  had  been 
traversing  territory  belonging  to  Mexico,  according 


SECESSION  IN  ARIZONA.  375 

to  the  boundary  agreed  upon  by  the  treaty  of  Guada- 
lupe  Hidalgo.  In  1854,  however,  what  is  known  as 
the  Gadsden  purchase  was  completed,  securing  for  the 
United  States  an  increase  of  territory  and  a  route  for4 
a  southern  railroad  to  California.  After  this,  forts 
Buchanan  and  Breckenridge  were  established,  wagon- 
roads  were  opened,  a  stage-line  was  established,  and 
the  American  population  increasing,  rich  mines  were 
discovered,  and  a  general  progress  was  observable. 
Then  followed  a  collapse.  In  1861  the  secession  of 
the  southern  states  made  its  influence  felt  in  Arizona. 
Public  sentiment  was  generally  in  favor  of  disunion, 
and  at  a  convention  held  in  Tucson,  the  territory  was 
declared  a  part  of  the  confederacy.  In  July  of  the 
same  year  Lieutenant-colonel  John  R.  Baylor  entered 
the  Mesilla  valley  and  took  possession  with  a  Texan 
force,  whereupon  the  officers  in  command  at  forts 
Buchanan  and  Breckenridge  were  ordered  to  abandon 
those  posts  and  march  to  the  Rio  Grande.  The  In- 
dian tribes,  who  had  yearly  been  growing  more  and 
more  hostile  under  the  aggravation  of  mismanage- 
ment and  injustice,  had  gone  on  the  war-path  almost 
simultaneously  in  the  preceding  year,  and  they 
now  regarded  the  departure  of  the  soldiers  as  an 
admission  of  the  white  man's  inability  to  cope  with 
them.  They  fell  with  fury  on  the  settlers,  killing 
all  who  were  not  fortunate  enough  to  escape  or 
take  refuge  in  Tucson,  which  afforded  shelter  to  a  few 
hundred  who  remained.  For  more  than  a  year  the 
savages  were  absolute  masters  of  the  territory. 

In  February  1862  Captain  Hunter  marched  from 
Mesilla  with  two  or  three  hundred  Texans  and  occu- 
pied Tucson,  but  news  of  the  approach  of  a  strong 
force  of  volunteers  from  California  caused  him  pres- 
ently to  retire,  and  in  May  Lieutenant-colonel  West 
raised  again  the  union  flag  over  Tucson.  Henceforth 
Arizona  was  kept  well  in  hand,  the  military  posts 
were  garrisoned  by  loyal  Californians  under  Major 
David  Ferguson,  and  her  secessionist  proclivities  were 


376  GOVERNMENT-ARIZONA  AND  NEW   MEXICO. 

eradicated.  During  this  and  the  following  years  of 
the  war  the  soldiers  were  engaged  in  fighting  the  In- 
dians and  prospecting  the  country  for  mines. 

By  an  act  of  congress  passed  in  February  1863 
this  portion  of  New  Mexico  was  made  a  separate  ter- 
ritory, under  the  name  of  Arizona,  John  N.  Goodwin 
of  Maine  being  appointed  its  first  governor  by  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  in  March.  Fort  Whipple,  lately  estab- 
lished by  the  California  column,  was  proclaimed  by 
Goodwin  as  the  temporary  seat  of  government,  and 
there  the  officials  arrived  in  January  1864.  In 
May  the  fort  was  removed  to  its  present  site,  and 
near  it  was  founded  the  town  of  Prescott,  which  be- 
came the  permanent  capital  since  1877,  though  not 
without  opposition  on  the  part  of  Tucson,  where,  in 
fact,  the  five  sessions  of  the  legislatures  preceding 
that  date  were  held.  Goodwin  was  succeeded  in 
1865  by  Richard  McCormick,  whose  administration 
terminated  in  1869.  Since  then  A.  P.  K.  Safford, 
John  P.  Hoyt,  John  C.  Fremont,  John  J.  Gosper,  F. 
A.  Trittle,  and  Mr  Zulick  successively  held  office  as 
governors.  The  last  named,  being  appointed  by 
President  Cleveland  in  1885,  is  a  democrat,  his  prede- 
cessors having  been  republicans.  These  rulers  have, 
for  the  most  part,  been  honorable  and  intelligent  men, 
though  governors  McCormick  and  Safford,  whose  ad- 
ministrations were  exceptionally  protracted,  identified 
themselves  more  thoroughly  with  the  interests  of 
the  country. 

After  the  organization  of  the  government  immi- 
gration set  in  steadily  so  that,  whereas  in  the  dark 
period  of  1861-3  the  white  population  was  not  more 
than  500  or  600,  it  can  hardly  have  numbered  less 
than  75,000  in  1886.  Special  mention  must  be  made 
of  the  Mormon  settlers,  who,  since  1876,  have  estab- 
lished thriving  towns  on  the  Little  Colorado,  Salt 
river,  the  San  Pedro,  and  the  upper  Gila.  These  col- 
onists are  justly  regarded  as  among  the  best  who 
have  settled  in  Arizona,  being  quiet,  industrious,  and 


MORMONS  IN  ARIZONA.  377 

unobtrusive.  By  steady  perseverance  and  resolution 
they  have  reclaimed  from  the  desert  large  tracts  of 
land,  which  they  have  successfully  placed  under  cul- 
tivation. Their  chief  settlements  are  Sunset,  St 
Joseph,  and  Brigham  city  on  the  Little  Colorado; 
Lehi  and  Mesa  city  on  Salt  river;  St  David,  Curtis, 
Graham,  Layton,  and  McDonald  on  the  San  Pedro  ; 
and  Piina  on  the  upper  Gila.  The  leaders  of  these 
Mormon  colonists  were,  respectively,  in  the  above 
order  of  establishment:  Lot  Smith  in  1876;  David 
W.  Jones,  and  Jesse  H.  Perkins,  1877  and  1878;  P. 
C.  Merrill,  1878;  and  Joseph  K.  Rogers,  1879. 

Utah  was  settled  by  a  people,  who,  like  Israel  of 
old,  believed  themselves  under  the  more  immediate 
guidance  of  the  Almighty.  They  accepted  the  He- 
brew scriptures,  the  whole  of  them,  old  and  new 
testament,  as  the  veritable  word  of  God,  and  endeav- 
ored to  follow  the  same  to  logical  conclusions.  If 
visions  and  miracles  once  obtained,  and  God  is  un- 
changeable, why  should  they  not  occur  now?  If 
slavery,  polygamy,  and  blood-atonement  were  ever 
right  in  the  eyes  of  a  righteous  God,  why  should 
they  not  be  so  now  ?  Slavery,  however,  the  Mor- 
mons never  advocated ;  and  in  addition  to  the  ac- 
ceptation of  all  the  tenets  of  the  Christian,  they 
claimed  a  new  and  special  revelation  at  the  mouth  of 
Joseph  Smith. 

Nowhere  else,  among  all  the  systems  of  govern- 
ment at  present  under  consideration,  do  we  encounter 
a  pure  theocracy.  It  does  not  seem  to  harmonize  in 
every  respect  with  a  pure  democracy.  In  a  govern- 
ment of  God,  where  material  as  well  as  eternal  inter- 
ests are  promulgated  largely  upon  a  cooperative  plan, 
that  part  of  the  theory  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, which  invests  in  the  unit  all  the  several  powers 
and  prerogatives  found  in  the  aggregate,  is  sub- 
verted, or  made  null.  It  was  never  contemplated  in 


378  GOVERNMENT-UTAH. 

our  political  system,  that  men  would  combine  to  carry 
elections  for  any  other  purposes  than  those  of  public 
utility  or  private  rascality ;  cooperation  for  material 
benefits  on  a  religious  basis  was  never  contemplated 
by  the  founders  of  this  government.  Neither,  for 
that  matter,  was  the  elevation  of  low  Africans  or  low 
Europeans  to  the  rights  and  dignities  of  intelligent 
and  responsible  American  citizens. 

The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 
was  organized  upon  a  national  basis,  as  wTell  as  for 
spiritual  purposes.  Government,  as  originally  dele- 
gated by  God  to  the  prophet-founder  of  the  church, 
was  forever  thereafter  vested  in  him,  and  in  the  line 
of  legitimate  succession.  It  should  be  the  aim  of 
the  leader  of  the  church,  from  a  proper  interpreta- 
tion of  the  transmitted  gospel  and  history  and  special 
divine  revelations,  to  direct  earthly  as  well  as  heav- 
enly affairs.  Following  the  examples  of  the  Hebrew 
leaders,  there  was  found  a  need  of  assistants  ;  and  the 
necessity  was  recognized  of  attaching  followers  to  the 
common  cause,  and  of  giving  position  to  influential 
persons,  at  the  same  time  holding  out  the  hope  of 
similar  advancement  to  others.  And  so  was  insti- 
tuted a  graded  priesthood,  with  deacons,  elders, 
bishops,  and  councillors,  who  were  limited  to  twelve, 
and  constituted  a  standing  advisory  body  with  partly 
legislative  power.  Two  special  councillors  were  asso- 
ciated with  the  prophet  to  form  the  first  or  highest 
presidency,  although  their  position  was  little  more 
than  a  nominal  dignity,  since  their  head  ruled  su- 
preme under  the  immediate  guidance  of  divine  revela- 
tion. In  due  time  was  chosen  a  select  twelve  as 
apostles,  in  imitation  of  Christ's  companions,  and  in 
recognition  of  the  superior  skill  and  influence  dis- 
played in  commanding  men  by  precept  and  practice. 
With  them  lay  rulership  during  an  interregnum. 
This  elevation  of  the  leading  men  was  prudent  and 
politic  ;  but  there  was  some  danger  in  bringing  into 
nearness  of  relationship  a  too  great  ability  or  am- 


JOSEPH  SMITH.  379 

bition,  unless  held  in  strict  subordination.  Perfect 
fellowship  and  perfect  self-sacrifice  on  the  part 
of  both  men  and  women  are  among  the  leading 
tenets  of  the  church  of  Latter-day  Saints.  Those 
rites  and  customs  the  most  condemned  by  their  ene- 
mies are  to  them  the  most  treasured  of  their  faith, 
sooner  than  yield  which  they  are  ready  to  die. 
Tithes  they  cheerfully  pay,  though  not  compelled  to 
do  so  by  any  law  ;  in  return  they  secure  good  stand- 
ing in  society  and  the  church  ;  indeed,  this  contribu- 
tion is,  as  the  Mormons  believe,  the  price  of  all  the 
blessings  that  God  and  man  can  give,  and  these  com- 
prise all  blessings,  both  in  this  life  and  the  life  to 
come. 

Born  of  humble  parents,  and  reared  without  much 
education  or  aim  in  life,  Joseph  Smith  fell  into  mar- 
vellous ways  ;  and  whatever  may  be  our  opinion  re- 
garding his  religion,  the  fact  remains  that  it  was 
established.  A  considerable  number  of  people,  both 
at  Kirkland,  Ohio,  and  Nauvoo,  Illnois,  enough  to 
constitute  a  large  community,  accepted  his  teachings, 
and  acknowledged  him  as  a  prophet  of  God,  and  his 
words  as  conveying  divine  intelligence  direct  from  the 
source  of  all  wisdom.  Driven  with  his  followers  from 
the  states  of  New  York  and  Ohio,  he  was  murdered 
in  Illinois,  sealing  his  mission  with  martyrdom,  to  the 
great  strengthening  of  the  faith. 

Thus  the  task  of  Joseph  Smith  was  fully  accom- 
plished; at  the  time  he  laid  it  down,  the  work  was 
so  far  advanced  that  in  spirit  he  could  thenceforth 
serve  it  better,  leaving  to  more  practical  hands  the 
further  embodiment  of  his  plans.  He  was  a  man  of 
evident  genius  for  his  mission,  moulding  thousands  to 
his  thoughts ;  but  his  originality  extended  little  be- 
yond spiritual  matters,  wherein  exalted  oratory  could 
kindle  a  life-stirring  enthusiasm,  and  personal  magnet- 
ism attract  followers.  In  material  affairs  he  was 
guided  by  tact  to  embrace  opportunities,  rather  than 
seek  oat  and  adopt  them.  He  was  an  inspiring  leader 


380  GOVERNMENT— UTAH. 

rather  than  a  cool  and  prudent  general,  such  as  was 
required  for  the  inauguration  of  a  crusade  or  the  car- 
rying out  of  a  campaign. 

For  what  followed  the   driving  out   of  the  saints 

O 

from  Illinois,  his  successor,  Brigham  Young,  was 
more  competent  than  he.  To  Brigham's  practical 
genius  is  mainly  due  the  creation  of  a  flourishing 
state  in  the  wilderness  of  Utah,  arid  the  elevation  of 
Mormonism  from  a  struggling  sect  to  an  influential 
community.  This  achievement  implies  the  possession 
of  strong  traits;  traits  which  were  implanted  by  the 
sturdy  character  of  a  father  who  had  fought  in  the 
revolutionary  war,  and  maintained,  as  a  small  farmer,  a 
constant  struggle  with  poverty.  Brigham's  aspiring 
nature  revealed  itself  in  more  varied  pursuits  for  a 
livelihood,  in  different  mechanical  efforts,  which  served 
to  implant  a  bent  for  novelty  and  a  curiosity  for 
knowledge,  while  affirming  his  self-reliance  and  adap- 
tability. The  father  had  drifted  with  his  family  from 
Massachusetts  to  Whitingham,  Vermont,  where  Brig- 
ham,  the  seventh  child,  was  born  on  June  1,  1801, 
and  thence  to  New  York  state,  where  Mormonism 
gained  one  of  the  sons.  The  latter  did  not  join  the 
church  until  1832,  at  which  date  it  had  acquired  con- 
siderable influence,  but  he  atoned  for  the  delay  by 
bringing  the  entire  family  into  the  fold,  and  concen- 
trating all  the  influence  of  his  strong  nature  on  the 
cause.  His  reward  came  quickly,  for  within  three 
years  he  rose  from  elder  to  apostle,  and  displayed  as 
missionary  a  vigor  of  appeal  and  practical  illustration 
which  struck  home  where  mere  eloquence  failed. 

He  attached  himself  to  the  prophet,  who  on  one 
occasion  was  indebted  to  him  for  his  life,  and  reached 
so  prominent  a  position  as  to  direct,  during  the  im- 
prisonment of  the  leader,  the  settlement  of  the  Mor- 
mons in  Illinois.  Meanwhile  the  apostasy  and  deaths 
of  others  advanced  him  to  the  rank  of  senior  apostle 
and  head  of  the  council.  Joseph  could  not  fail  to  ob- 
serve the  weighty  qualities  of  his  lieutenant,  so  much 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG.  381 

more  fitted  than  his  own  for  the  work  of  migration 
and  colonization  which  lay  before  them.  Perhaps  he 
yielded  to  jealousy,  for  Brigham  was  sent  on  a  mis- 
sion to  distant  England,  but  his  ambition  had  been 
aroused  for  a  wider  exercise  of  power,  and  he  returned 
a  year  later  and  persuaded  the  prophet  to  issue  a 
revelation  relieving  him  of  expatriation. 

The  removal  of  Joseph  by  assassination,  on  the 
part  of  an  Illinois  mob,  was  expected  by  many  to  re- 
sult in  dissension  among  his  followers,  under  the 
machinations  of  discord,  fear,  and  personal  ambition. 
Indeed,  the  first  to  step  forward  to  secure  the  honor 
was  Sidney  Rigdon,  one  of  the  best  educated  and 
most  eloquent  preachers  in  the  society,  who  had  given 
direction,  point  and  form  to  its  theology,  but  who 
lacked  the  essential  qualification  for  a  leader.  He 
had  become  soured  and  driven  into  semi-rebellion  by 
Joseph's  opposition  to  his  worldly  and  too  selfish 
ambition,  and  in  his  present  resolve  to  help  himself 
he  only  roused  the  other  chiefs  to  unite  against  him. 

This  exactly  suited  Brigham  Young.  Shrewdly 
holding  back  his  own  aspirations,  he  appealed  to  the 
vanity  and  interests  of  the  apostolic  body  by  making 
common  cause  with  them,  and  declaring  that  the  keys 
of  the  church  should  remain  in  their  possession.  The 
apparent  abnegation  of  so  redoubtable  a  member  had 
also  its  effect.  Rigdon  was  ignominiously  defeated 
and  retired  into  obscurity.  Brigham,  as  senior  apos- 
tle, wielded  the  controlling  power,  and  \vas  in  1847 
formally  proclaimed  president  of  the  church.  It  was 
an  evolution  of  the  fittest  in  Zion. 

Brigham  Young  was  a  great  man,  measured  by  his 
achievements,  and  far  superior  to  those  around  him  in 
intellectual  force,  which,  combined  with  personal  mag- 
netism and  physique  gave  weight  to  his  will  and 
opinion,  and  maintained  autocratic  sway  over  a 
mixed  community.  He  may  or  may  not  have  been  an 
unquestioning  believer  in  the  doctrines  of  the  church, 
but  he  was  bound  to  it,  as  he  believed;  by  every  in- 


382  GOVERNMENT— UTAH. 

terest  in  this  life,  and  in  the  life  to  come,  and  thus  was 
imparted  earnestness  and  zeal  which,  directed  to  what- 
ever cause,  formed  a  host  in  themselves.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  movement  inspired  him  with  the  confi- 
dence and  assurance  which  begets  further  triumphs. 
Here  was  his  life  task,  to  which  all  the  powers  of 
mind  and  heart  urged  him  on.  His  strength  lay  re- 
vealed in  a  ready  adaptation  to  the  exigencies  of 
pioneering  and  governing,  of  subduing  alike  a  wilder- 
ness of  nature  and  the  passions  of  men;  and  this 
without  so  blind  a  devotion  to  the  tenets  of  the 
church  as  to  imperil  colonization.  He  possesssed 
great  administrative  ability,  combined  with  admirable 
foresight  and  knowledge  of  human  nature.  His 

O  O 

revelations  and  instructions  were  of  the  practical  kind, 
all  in  the  direction  of  greater  comfort  and  prosperity, 
cheering  alike  to  followers  and  leaders.  He  ruled  as 
he  rose,  as  indeed  all  religionists  rule  and  rise  by 
appeals  to  self-interest ;  he  was  less  a  prophet  than  a 
king,  less  an  idealist  than  a  political  economist.  His 
superiority  was  native  to  him,  expanding  daily  in 
strength  and  influence. 

O 

He  fitted  his  position  also  in  person.  His  compact 
frame,  a  little  above  medium  height,  and  gradually 
growing  portly,  was  full  of  energy  and  of  the  vigor  of 
manhood ;  strong  in  nerve  and  muscle,  yet  with  a  dig- 
nified and  somewhat  imposing  bearing.  On  his 
features  were  delineated  shrewdness,  tact,  and  the 
resolution  of  an  all  conquering  will,  the  will  of  a  man 
who  held  perfect  control  of  himself  and  was  well  fitted 
to  take  control  of  others. 

A  growing  hostility  emphasized  the  evils  of  asso- 
ciation with  gentiles,  which  threatened  constantly 
to  unravel  the  fabric  woven  with  so  much  labor.  A 
new  home  must  be  sought  so  remote  as  to  insure 
against  present  contact  with  opposing  religions,  and 
this  for  the  peace  of  the  flock  as  well  as  to  gain  time 
for  the  church  to  root  itself  firmly  in  the  new  soil,  ready 


BRIG  HAM  YOUNG.  S83 

to  undergo  whatever  winds  of  adversity  were  destined 
to  blow  against  it.  These  considerations  counseled 
also  the  selection  of  Utah,  rather  than  the  more  in- 
viting Pacific  shores  for  settlement,  the  latter  begin- 
ning to  be  at  the  time  the  p'oal  of  an  inflowing;  rabble. 

o  o  o 

Brigham  planned  the  exodus  in  a  manner  which  en- 
sured it  against  much  hardship  and  danger,  and  one 
section  of  5,000  reached  its  destination  almost  with- 
out the  loss  of  a  life.  The  soil  was  subdued  by  irri- 
gation, and  many  of  the  comforts  lost  by  interrupted 
intercourse  with  the  east  were  supplied  by  building 
up  manufactures  and  opening  up  local  resources. 
Settlements  spread  rapidly  under  the  constant  addi- 
tion to  the  population  by  systematic  proselyting  in 
all  parts  of  the  world,  until  they  extended  into  the 
adjoining  territories,  centering  round  a  number  of 
flourishing  towns,  Salt  Lake  City,  as  the  capital, 
leading  in  1883  with  25,000  inhabitants,  or  one 
seventh  of  the  total  for  Utah. 

This  growth,  and  the  influx  of  gentiles  consequent 
on  the  California  gold  fever,  which  pushed  the  terri- 
tory into  prominence  as  a  half-way  station  for  traffic, 
and  an  important  portion  of  the  United  States,  called 
for  establishment  of  the  form  of  government  required 
by  the  republic.  The  attitude  of  California  pre- 
sented a  pleasing  suggestion  for  Mormon  aspirations ; 
and  not  content  with  the  territorial  organization  per- 
taining to  the  small  community  of  1849,  its  leaders 
framed  a  constitution  and  a  provisional  government 
for  a  state,  denominated  Deseret.  The  limits  were 
from  the  Rocky  mountains  to  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and 
from  Mexico  to  Oregon,  including  a  strip  of  coast  in 
southern  California,  partly  with  a  view  to  offset  pau- 
city of  numbers  by  extent  of  domain,  and  so  strengthen 
the  chance  of  consent  by  congress.  In  statehood 
alone  lay  now  any  hope  for  such  self-administration 
as  might  protect  their  institutions,  and  guard  against 
a  too  rabid  opposition.  The  open  avowal  of  polyg- 
amy tended  to  the  refusal  of  statehood  and  of  the 


384  GOVERNMENT- UTAH. 

Mormon  delegates  at  Washington,  and  the  result  was 
a  territorial  organization  under  the  name  of  Utah,  cir- 
cumscribed in  the  south  by  limiting  its  extent  to  lati- 
tude 37°.  Brigham  Young  was  retained  in  his  position 
of  governor,  and  the  Mormons  obtained  a  proportion 
of  the  offices  later  filled  by  the  federal  authorities. 

They  accepted  the  alternative  as  a  temporary 
measure,  continuing  to  apply  at  intervals  for  state 
sovereignty,  and  retaining,  indeed,  for  years,  a  shadow 
of  the  provisional  self-government  in  an  unauthorized 
state  assembly,  which,  after  each  session  of  the  ter- 
ritorial legislature,  reenacted  the  laws  passed  therein. 
Their  peculiarities  were  especially  preserved  in  the 
administration  of  the  states,  corresponding  to  coun- 
ties, and  their  ward  subdivisions,  each  in  charge  of  a 
bishop.  No  political  parties  were  tolerated  among 
the  Mormons.  They  voted  purely  as  directed  by 
their  spiritual  chiefs,  yielding  without  a  pang  repub- 
lican rights  and  principles  to  sustain  a  greatly  prized 
hierarchy,  swayed  by  the  will  of  the  leader.  The  in- 
creasing number  of  foreigners — for  the  Mormons 
considered  themselves  a  distinct  and  peculiar  people 
—unused  to  the  ballot,  favored  the  procedure.  Jus- 
tice was  administered  under  a  code  based  on  church 
doctrines,  and  in  order  to  frustrate  the  interference  of 
federal  district  courts,  probate  courts  were  instituted 
by  the  Mormons  in  each  county,  with  a  jurisdiction 
so  extensive  as  virtually  to  supplant  the  higher  tri- 
bunals. The  faithful  were,  moreover,  opposed  to  litiga- 
tion, preferring  simple,  speedy,  and  equitable  arbitra- 
tion. Public  affairs  were  in  every  direction  so 
manipulated  as  to  leave  as  little  labor  or  influence  as 
possible  to  federal  officials. 

On  the  other  hand,  taxation  was  nowhere  more 
lightly  or  equitably  adjusted.  There  may  be  political 
"bosses"  among  ecclesiastical  leaders,  but  if  so,  they 
exist  more  for  the  benefit  of  the  community  than  for 
themselves,  and  their  loftier,  even  if  ambitious,  aim 
is  seldom  tinged  by  the  usual  official  bribery  and 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG.  385 

greed  manifest  among  the  gentiles.  There  were  no 
rings  of  rascality  to  enrich  individuals  at  the  public 
expense,  and  Utah  is  practically  free  from  debt.  In 
1865  the  territorial  and  county  taxes  were  not  al- 
lowed to  exceed  one  per  cent  of  the  assessed  value  of 
property,  while  for  school  purposes  they  seldom  ex- 
ceeded one-fourth  of  one  per  cent.  In  1887  the  ter- 
ritorial and  school  rate  was  only  six  mills  on  the  dollar, 
counties  being  limited  to  the  same  rate,  and  cities  to 
five  mills  on  the  dollar  for  municipal  expenses,  and 
the  same  amount  for  street  work.  The  assessed  value 
of  property,  ranging  from  20  to  50  per  cent  of  the 
real  value,  stood  at  $30,800,000,  yielding  $185,000 
for  territorial  and  school  purposes.  Notwithstanding 
the  low  rate,  public  improvements  are  widely  distrib- 
uted, showing  economic  expenditure.  One  half  of 
the  money  received  from  taxes  was  not,  as  is  too 
often  the  case  in  other  territories  and  states,  unblush- 
ingly  stolen  or  misapplied  by  professional  politicians, 
demagogues,  or  hungry  hangers-on.  The  income 
from  tithes  was  placed  in  1880  at  $450,000,  which  is 
not  larger  in  proportion  to  the  population  than  the 
amount  expended  for  religious  and  charitable  pur- 
poses in  other  states.  The  federal  revenue  averaged 
$40,000  for  a  score  of  years,  and  has  now  risen  some- 
what. It  is  mostly  derived  from  licenses,  although 
of  late  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  and  liquors,  long 
unknown  here,  is  beginning  to  assume  some  im- 
portance. 

As  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs,  Brigham  met 
with  admirable  results  from  the  advancement  of  his 
own  ideas.  He  met  and  treated  the  Indians  as 
brethren,  keeping  his  promises  and  treaties  with  them, 
preferring  liberal  concessions  for  maintaining  peace 
to  raids  and  bloody  butcheries  for  the  quicker  devel- 
opment of  settlements.  Troubles  could  not  be  alto- 
gether avoided,  owing  particularly  to  the  reckless 
acts  of  gold-seeking  gentiles.  Again,  effective  use 
was  made  of  the  militia,  which  included  all  males  be- 

C.  B.— II.     25 


386  GOVERNMENT— UTAH. 

tween  18  and  45  years  of  age,  so  that  Utah  remained 
comparatively  secure,  notwithstanding  the  turmoils 
in  adjoining  sections. 

The  Mormons  evidently  did  best  when  least  inter- 
fered with;  and  as  those  practices  which  were  ob- 
noxious to  others,  though  so  dear  to  themselves, 
could  not  prove  infectious,  it  would  have  been  better 
to  have  left  them  more  alone,  trusting  to  the  devel- 
opment of  other  territories,  to  the  intermingling  with 
gentiles,  to  education  among  the  rising  generation, 
and  to  wise  and  temperate  measures  for  the  abolition 
of  polygamy  and  other  evils.  Former  misunder- 
standings should  have  taught  the  federal  authorities 
the  advisability  at  least  of  diplomatic  treatment,  the 
more  so  as  the  Mormons  had  assisted  with  a  battalion 
to  conquer  the  country,  and  had  occupied  it  before  its 
cession  by  Mexico.  Instead  of  this  the  offices  were 
assigned  without  regard  to  fitness  to  men,  who,  for- 
getful, as  a  rule,  of  sense  and  duty,  assumed  arro- 
gantly and  needlessly  to  meddle  with  popular  and 
religious  customs,  therein  displaying  a  spirit  of  sav- 
age fanaticism,  and  systematic  persecution  under 
cover  of  federal  laws.  The  result  for  a  lone?  time 

O 

was  to  rouse  ill  feeling  and  opposition,  leading  to  fre- 
quent change  of  officials,  some  departing  in  fear  of 
their  lives.  As  part  of  their  policy,  the  govern- 
ment found  it  advisable  in  1857  to  replace  Brigham 
Young  by  another  governor,  in  the  person  of  Alfred 
Gumming,  assisted  by  new  judges,  and  to  sustain 
them  with  a  force  of  soldiers. 

Brigham  believed  that  a  show  of  resistance,  nota- 
bly by  means  of  guerilla  warfare,  might  call  attention 
to  the  injustice  or  harshness  of  these  proceedings,  and 
evoke  sympathy  from  the  people  at  large  against 
armed  interference.  In  any  case  remoteness  and  the 
number  of  his  devoted  followers,  and  the  ready  al- 
liance of  Indians,  might  enforce  concessions.  His 
surmises  were  correct.  The  harassing  manoeuvres  of 
the  Mormons  proved  so  effective,  especially  upon 


CUMMING,  HARDY,  SCHAFFER,  WOODS.  387 

sources  of  supply,  as  to  reduce  the  troops  to  narrow 
straits,  and  to  bring  both  ridicule  and  denunciation 
upon  Buchanan,  president  of  the  United  States. 
Negotiations  were  opened,  with  an  offer  of  amnesty 
on  one  side,  and  acceptance  on  the  other,  of  the 
troops  in  quiet  occupation  of  certain  points.  Brig- 
ham  was  made  to  see  that  the  refusal  of  these  conces- 
sions would  justify  and  oblige  the  cabinet  to  take 
more  effective  steps,  against  which  it  would  be  futile 
to  struggle.  The  popular  prejudice  against  this  sect, 
only  slightly  softened  by  recent  sympathy,  had  been 
embittered  by  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre  of 
1857,  ascribed  to  Indians,  but  charged  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  saints  directly  upon  them.  Their  inter-J 
ests  were,  moreover,  touched  by  the  prospect  of 
supplying  the  troops,  and  they  certainly  obtained  a 
large  share  of  the  $15,000,000  which  the  expedition 
cost  before  its  withdrawal  in  1861. 

Gumming  acted  with  such  discretion  as  to  greatly 
soften  the  chagrin  of  the  Mormons  over  the  removal 
of  Brigham,  and  reconcile  the  people  to  the  change. 
Among  other  concessions  came  a  more  liberal  appor- 
tionment of  federal  funds  for  public  works.  Brigham, 
nevertheless,  remained  de  facto  ruler,  as  head  of  the 
church,  upon  which  political  affairs,  like  others,  were 
dependent.  The  unit-vote  system  had  been  formally 
adopted  in  Utah  by  an  act  of  1853,  and  registration 
in  voting.  Federal  officials  were  made  to  feel  the  ef- 
fects of  it,  and  the  less  accommodating  successors  of 
Gumming  hesitated  not  to  exhibit  their  annoyance. 
President  Lincoln's  policy  was  to  leave  them  alone, 
yet  Governor  Hardy  and  his  judicial  companions 
openly  condemned  polygamy,  and  attempted  to  con- 
trol militia  appointments,  and  restrict  the  probate 
courts.  The  consequent  outburst  of  popular  indigna- 
tion led  to  a  fresh  expedition  of  troops,  a  step 
prompted,  moreover,  by  the  not  over  loyal  sentiments 
of  the  local  press,  although  the  Mormons  remained 
true  to  the  union, 


388  GOVERNMENT— UTAH. 

After  the  war  the  authorities  at  Washington  entered 
upon  a  crusade  against  polygamy,  and  many  schemes 
were  proposed,  such  as  to  merge  Utah  into  the  ad- 
joining territories ;  to  grant  it  statehood,  and  let  party 
spirit  spread  reform ;  for  a  commission  to  assume  con- 
trol of  affairs  in  federal  interest ;  to  prohibit  polygamy 
and  enforce  marriage,  with  registration,  as  a  civil 
compact,  giving  the  wife  right  to  dowry,  and  also  the 
right  to  testify  against  the  husband  in  courts  of  law. 
Some  of  these  plans  passed  early  into  operation.  The 
creation  of  the  states  or  territories  of  Nevada,  Idaho, 
Wyoming,  and  Colorado  reduced  the  area  of  Utah, 
and  brought  large  numbers  of  Mormons  under  outside 

O  O 

control.  Schisms  arose  within,  striking  at  ecclesias- 
tical supremacy,  and  sowing  discord.  Polygamy  be- 
ing the  only  tangible  defect  which  afforded  a  handle 

O  */  O 

for  wide  interference  by  the  government,  this  was 
made  the  excuse  for  political  and  religious  persecution. 
The  opposers  of  Mormonism  care  very  little  for  polyg- 
amy; it  is  notorious  that  among  the  governors  and 
other  gentile  office-holders  in  Utah  who  were  loudest 
in  their  denunciation  of  what  they  called  the  immo- 
rality of  the  Mormons,  were  the  most  immoral  of 
men  themselves,  lewd,  drunken,  dishonest,  many 
times  worse  than  anything  the  Mormons  were  ever 
truthfully  accused  of.  The  true  cause  of  the  intense 
bitterness  toward  the  Mormons  has  been  from  the 
first  the  peculiar  power  their  religious  and  political 
cooperation  gives  them. 

Governor  J.  Wilson  Schaffer,  in  1870,  took  the 
preliminary  precaution  to  forbid  the  usual  mustering 
of  the  militia,  by  this  time  13,000  strong,  and  this 
was  forcibly  affirmed  by  the  pugnacious  George  L. 
Woods,  an  Oregon  politician  from  Missouri,  of  anti- 
Mormon  origin,  who  in  1871  succeeded  the  mild  and 
conservative  V.  H.  Yaughan.  He  thereupon  sought 
to  revive  the  defective  polygamy  law  of  1862,  and 
ventured  to  arrest  Brigham  Young  himself,  together 
with  other  leaders,  for  lascivious  cohabitation,  But 


FEDERAL  OFFICIALS.  389 

nothing  could  be  accomplished,  and  the  effort  to  re- 
duce the  power  of  the  churchmen  made  little  advance. 
The  government  accordingly  relaxed  its  efforts  once 
more,  and  Woods'  successors,  S.  B.  Axtell  of  Califor- 
nia, and  G.  B.  Emery  of  Tennessee,  observed  an  atti- 
tude so  neutral  as  to  bring  upon  them  round  abuse 
from  the  gentile  press. 

During  this  respite  occurred  the  death  of  Brigham 
Young,  on  August  29,  1877,  in  his  seventy-seventh 
year.  It  was  a  loss  felt  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Utah, 
exciting,  indeed,  more  attention  throughout  the  world 
than  that  of  many  another  monarch.  The  Mormons 
mourned  for  him  as  a  friend  and  benefactor  no  less 
than  as  prophet  and  chief.  For  over  three  decades 
he  had  been  their  guide  and  leader,  the  brain,  the  eye, 
the  mouthpiece  of  his  people,  rescuing  them  from  per- 
secution and  poverty,  and  associated  with  every  detail 
and  phase  of  their  spiritual  and  material  welfare.  He 
was  the  prime  mover  in  the  industrial  development 
which  transformed  a  wilderness  into  a  garden ;  he 
caused  to  be  built  a  series  of  flourishing  cities ;  he  es- 
tablished trade  and  manufactures,  and  made  his  colony 
the  envy  of  older  communities,  and  a  model  for  new 
ones.  In  such  a  man  faults  are  hidden  by  the  radi- 
ance of  results.  He  stands  forward  as  one  of  the 
band  of  world-leaders,  fitted  to  impress  the  stamp  of 
nationality  upon  a  people,  whose  practical  genius  has 
engraved  itself  in  history  as  the  founder  of  a  state,  as 
a  beneficent  enthusiast,  and  able  ruler. 

With  his  death  absolute  power  was  expected  to  feel 
the  shock,  but  the  leaders  hastened  to  signify  their 
unanimity  and  contentment  with  the  existing  order  of 
things  by  upholding  the  senior  apostle,  John  Taylor, 
as  acting  chief,  and  confirming  him  formally  as  presi- 
dent three  years  later,  with  George  Q.  Cannon  and 
Joseph  F.  Smith  as  councillors. 

Taylor  and  Cannon  were  natives  of  England; 
Smith  was  born  in  Missouri.  These,  with  Wilford 
Woodruff,  Willard  Richards,  Franklin  D.  Richards, 


390  GOVERNMENT— UTAH. 

Heber  C.  Kimball,  Orson  Pratt,  Erastus  Snow,  and 
others,  were  long  pillars  of  the  church. 

The  federal  authorities  warmed,  later,  to  renewed 
onslaught,  and  issued,  in  1882,  the  Edmunds  law, 
punishing  illicit  cohabitation,  and  excluding  from  vote 
and  office  all  polygamists.  Its  enforcement  was  in- 
trusted to  a  commission  of  five,  assisted  by  chosen 
officials,  and  by  juries  weeded  of  Mormon  sympa- 
thizers. It  was  objected  that  the  law  violated  the  con- 
stitution, by  subordinating  the  majority  to  a  hostile 
minority;  by  employing  packed  or  one-sided  juries,  a 
composition  the  more  glaring  as  the  gentile  portion 
of  the  community,  forming  less  than  one  fourth  of  the 
total,  excelled  it  on  the  criminal  calendar ;  in  being  an 
ex -post  facto  law,  which  misinterpreted  judicial  func- 
tions, and  transferred  them  to  the  legislature  and 
executive. 

On  the  other  hand  it  was  claimed  that  the  Mor- 
mons thus  placed  at  a  disadvantage  were  offenders, 
banded  to  'break  the  law  and  defy  republican  princi- 
ples. 

The  history  of  Nevada  revolves  round  the  Corn- 
stock  lode,  which,  with  its  sisterhood  of  precious 
ledges  in  various  counties,  has  elevated  the  region  on 
a  desolate  transit  route  to  a  state.  Unlike  the  other 
mineral  states  to  the  west  and  east,  she  still  remains, 
preeminently  a  mining  field,  with  as  yet  small  recourse  \ 
to  the  more  stable  developments. 

The  first  glimpse  of  Nevada  by  Europeans  may 
have  been  obtained  by  the  detachment  from  Corona- 
do's  expedition,  which  in  1540,  under  Tobar,  sought 
to  explore  the  Colorado.  After  the  occupation  of 
New  Mexico,  late  in  that  century,  excursions  may  have 
been  undertaken  in  this  direction ;  but  the  first  re- 
corded entry  into  the  country  was  that  of  Father 


EARLY  EXPLORATIONS.  391 

Francisco  Garces,  who  in  1775  set  out  from  Sonora 
with  Anza's  California  party  to  establish  missions  on 
the  lower  Colorado.  He  travelled  over  a  wide  sec- 
tion of  this  region,  and  prepared  a  map  containing 
the  names  of  small  tribes  and  streams  in  southern 
Nevada.  In  the  following  year  the  friars  Domin- 
guez  and  Escalante  made  a  circuitous  trip  from  New 
Mexico,  which  skirted  Nevada's  eastern  line. 

Such  explorations  lent  affirmation  to  the  Spanish 
title  to  the  vast  interior,  long  claimed  by  virtue  of 
Spanish  navigators  having  taken  formal  possession 
along  the  coasts  of  either  ocean,  and  of  actual  set- 
tlements as  far  as  Florida  on  one  side,  and  San  Fran- 
cisco bay  on  the  other.  Geographers  continued  for 
over  two  centuries  to  mark  this  western  slope  by  the 
mythic  name  of  Quivira,  and  as  late  as  the  third  dec- 
ade of  the  present  century  maps  were  issued,  con- 
taining a  number  of  distorted  lakes  and  rivers  above 
Colorado. 

The  first  men  who  actually  penetrated  into  Utah 
and  Nevada  and  lifted  the  veil  of  ages  were  the 
trappers,  who,  after  two  decades  passed  in  the  sur- 
rounding regions  to  the  eastward,  reached  the  latter 
region.  In  1825  Peter  Skeen  Oj^den  entered  with  a 

O  O 

band  of  Canadians  and  Scotchmen  from  the  Hudson's 
Bay  company's  domain,  and  set  his  traps  on  Hum- 
boldt  river,  known  for  a  time  by  his  name,  Ogden, 
and  again  by  that  of  his  Shoshone  wife,  Mary. 
About  the  same  time  Bridger  approached  from  Utah 
with  a  number  of  American  followers,  and  celebrated 
with  a.  carousal  the  meeting  bet  ween  the  fur  magnates 
of  the  north  and  east  in  this  new  field.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  parties  of  W.  H.  Ashley  and  Jede- 
diah  S.  Smith  followed  on  their  heels,  the  latter  pass- 
ing on  to  California  and  on  his  return  making  the 
first  entire  transit  of  Nevada,  from  west  to  east,  in  a 
direction  opposite  to  the  march  of  empire.  Wolfskill, 
Nidever,  and  Walker  of  Bonneville's  band,  were 
among  the  hunters  of  succeeding  years. 


392  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

X 

So  far  the  Shoshones  had  been  intimidated  by  the 
number  and  the  fire-arms  of  the  intruders,  comple- 
mented by  friendly  gifts  and  barter,  or  by  such  stale 
devices  as  that  of  Ogden,  who  made  believe  to  marry 
one  of  their  maidens  as  the  cheapest  manner  in  which 
to  bind  the  tribe,  while  securing  for  himself  a  wife 
and  drudge,  to  be  cast  off  at  his  departure.  Joe 
Walker,  later  famed  as  guide,  found  them  less  com- 
pliant in  1832,  perhaps  on  account  of  shabby  treat- 
ment by  predecessors.  They  stole  traps  and  attempted 
several  raids.  One  day  400  of  the  Indians  attacked 
them,  and  were  routed  by  the  murderous  arms  of  the 
white  men.  After  this  the  enraged  trappers,  deluded 
in  their  expectations  of  obtaining  furs,  vented  their 
spite  in  a  series  of  outrages  on  unoffending  bands 
along  their  route  to  California,  for  which  succeeding 
emigrants  had  to  pay  dearly. 

In  the  path  opened  by  the  trappers,  began  to  tread, 
in  1839,  parties  of  restless  western  men  in  search  of 
new  homes.  Among  them  figure  Bartleson,  who  in 
1841  brought  the  first  wagon  to  Nevada;  and  Chiles, 
who  two  years  later  took  the  first  wagon  through  the 
country.  Official  information  regarding  the  transit 
routes  were  furnished  by  J.  C.  Fremont,  the  so-called 
pathfinder,  who  in  1843-6  crossed  and  recrossed  the 
region,  assisted  by  guides  like  Joe  Walker  and  Kit 
Carson,  whose  names  are  preserved  in  lakes,  rivers, 
and  passes.  The  latter  was  a  Kentuckian,  who  in  1828, 
at  the  age  of  19,  began  his  career  as  a  trapper,  and 
after  acting  as  guide  and  messenger  for  several  im- 
portant expeditions,  passed  to  New  Mexico,  where  he 
rose  to  prominence. 

These  avant-couriers  did  their  task  at  an  opportune 
moment,  for  the  gold  discovery  in  California  trans- 
formed their  trails  into  mighty  highways,  thronged 
with  excited  fortune-seekers,  at  times  exceeding 
50,000  during  the  season.  A  portion  took  the  Santa 
Fe  route,  south  of  Nevada,  but  far  the  largest  pro- 
portion moved  from  Great  Salt  lake  along  Humboldt 


JOHN  REESE.  393 

river,  crossing  thence  to  Carson  or  Truckee  rivers  for 
the  transit  over  the  Sierra. 

Lines  of  huge  canvas-covered  wagons  crept  in  sin- 
uous course,  drawn  by  oxen  and  escorted  by  men  on 
foot  or  horseback,  struggling  alternately  with  rugged 
passes  and  sun-beaten  alkali  wastes,  with  hardships, 
thirst  and  disease,  and  with  savages  bent  on  spoils  and 
revenge.  As  a  final  ordeal  for  the  weary  wanderers 
came  the  passage  of  the  terrible  sink  of  the  Hum- 
boldt,  and  for  many  a  delayed  party  the  crossing  of  the 
snow-covered  range.  All  along  the  line  lay  ominous 
signs  of  the  mishaps  of  the  migration  in  household 
effects,  thrown  from  the  wagons  to  lighten  the  burden 

O  O 

of  the  way-worn  beasts ;  and  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  journey  could  be  seen  abandoned  vehicles  and  the 
carcasses  of  fallen  animals. 

The  sufferings  and  wants  of  the  emigrants  had  be- 
gun to  appear  at  or  before  reaching  Salt  Lake  City, 
where  clothing,  wagons,  and  beasts  were  freely  ex- 
changed, in  the  absence  of  other  valuables,  for  provi- 
sions. Several  of  the  thrifty  saints  took  the  hint  to 
establish  trading  posts  along  the  route,  notably  in 
Carson  valley.  This,  the  first  settlement  in  Nevada, 
was  founded  by  H.  S.  Beatie,  a  Virginian,  aged 
twenty-three  years,  who,  after  a  course  at  college, 
had  become  a  follower  of  the  prophet  Joseph,  and  mi- 
grated to  Utah  in  1848,  with  his  wife.  After  erect- 
ing a  log  cabin  on  the  present  site  of  Genoa,  in  the 
early  half  of  1849,  he  stocked  it  with  provisions  from 
California,  and,  assisted  by  half  a  dozen  followers, 
realized  a  snug  profit.  During  the  same  autumn 
he  returned  to  Salt  Lake  City,  his  possessions  falling 
into  the  hands  of  John  Reese,  who  erected  a  more 
substantial  post,  known  as  Mormon  station,  to  which 
a  saw-mill  and  other  industrial  adjuncts  were  in  due 
time  added. 

In  1850  there  were  about  twenty  trading  posts  at 
intervals  along  Carson  valley,  established  chiefly  by 


394  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

men  from  California,  whence  relief  expeditions  had 
corne  to  meet  the  hapless  emigrants  and  help  them 
across  the  sink  and  over  the  mountains.  These  sta- 
tions, together  with  some  farms  dependent  on  them, 
had  by  the  following  year  a  population  of  nearly  one 
hundred.  Of  these  only  a  score  were  actual  settlers, 
their  number  being  augmented  in  1852  by  the  first 
female  resident,  the  wife  of  Mott,  founder  of  Motts- 
ville. 

Notwithstanding  this  paucity  of  numbers,  a  meet- 
ing was  held  on  November  12,  1851,  to  appoint  a 
governing  committee  of  seven  members.  Their  names 
were,  Wm  Byrnes,  John  Reese,  E.  L.  Barnard,  A. 
Woodward,  H.  H.  Jameson,  T«  A.  Hylton,  and  N. 
R.  Haskill.  Several  were  of  bad  character  and  met 
later  a  sad  and  disreputable  end.  One  of  the  few 
worthy  men  was  Reese,  a  New  Yorker,  who  at  the 
age  of  forty- one  had  proceeded  to  Utah,  there  to 
form  with  his  brother  a  trading  firm,  of  which  the 
Carson  house  was  a  branch.  Barnard,  a  partner, 
absconded  with  their  funds  in  1854,  and  Reese  sank 
into  poverty.  This  council  laid  down  rules  for  hold- 
ing lands,  and  petitioned  congress  for  a  distinct  terri- 
torial government  in  the  valley.  Meanwhile  Barnard 
was  chosen  magistrate,  Byrnes  sheriff,  and  Hylton 
clerk.  Appeal  was  to  be  made  to  a  court  of  twelve 
men,  summoned  as  would  be  a  jury. 

This  action  was  regarded  as  a  reproof  for  neglect 
by  the  people  of  Utah  who  in  1849  had  organized 
the  state  of  Deseret,  claiming  all  the  territory  east 
of  California,  between  Oregon  and  Mexico,  for  some 
distance  beyond  the  Rocky  mountains.  In  1852  the 
legislature  of  Utah  formed  seven  counties,  stretching 
between  parallel  lines  from  east  to  west,  through 
Utah  and  Nevada.  Judges  were  appointed  to  whom 
Carson  settlers  could  appeal,  a  mail  route  was  opened 
to  California,  and  preparation  made  for  stages.  The 
people  of  Carson  valley,  as  the  way  station,  assisted 
the  enterprise  by  constructing  roads  and  bridges,  and 


GEORGE  P.  STILES.  395 

the  number  of  settlers  began  to  increase,  attracted 
partly  by  fairly  yielding  placers. 

The  provisions  made  by  Utah  were  too  meagre  to 
satisfy  the  people.  In  1853  they  renewed  their  ap- 
peal to  congress,  asking  this  time  to  be  annexed  to 
the  nearer  and  more  cognate  state  of  California  for 
judicial  purposes.  The  Mormons  hastened  to  counter- 
act the  petition  by  creating  Carson,  in  January  1854, 
into  a  separate  county,  embracing  all  the  region  be- 
tween the  Sierra  and  18th  meridian,  from  the  pres- 
ent southern  line  of  Humboldt  county  to  about 
latitude  38°.  George  P.  Stiles  was  appointed  United 
States  judge  over  this  the  third  judicial  district  of  the 
territory,  Orson  Hyde  being  made  probate  judge. 
They  arrived  in  June,  and  arranged  for  an  election, 
at  which  James  C.  Fair  was  chosen  sheriff,  together 
with  a  number  of  other  county  officers. 

Stiles  soon  left  the  place,  when  again  rose  the 
spirit  of  independence,  displayed  in  the  draughting  of 
a  territorial  constitution,  and  later,  in  1856,  by  a  de- 
mand for  annexation  to  California.  Somewhat  alarmed 
for  their  territory,  the  Mormons  dispatched  thither  a 
colony  of  three-score  families,  and  with  this  majority 
assumed  the  management  of  affairs.  They  founded 
Genoa  at  Mormon  station,  Franktown,  and  Dayton; 
they  opened  irrigation  ditches,  erected  saw-mills  and 
other  industrial  adjuncts ;  gave  attention  to  schools, 
and  sought  to  form  society  on  the  Utah  plan,  with 
rigid  simplicity  and  restrained  indulgences. 

This  by  no  means  objectionable  transformation  re- 
ceived a  check  by  reason  of  the  attitude  of  the  federal 
government  toward  Utah,  marked  by  the  entry  of  an 
army  into  that  territority.  The  Carson  Mormons 
were  ordered  back  for  the  defence  of  Zion.  Most  of 
them  obeyed ;  and  so  collapsed,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
budding  social  and  material  improvements.  The 
county  court  adjourned,  and  did  not  meet  again  for 
three  years,  and  the  county  was  attached  to  that  of 


396  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

Great  Salt  lake,  although  a  few  officers  remained  to 
retain  a  semblance  to  the  organization. 

The  gentiles  gained  possession  of  the  property  of 
the  departing  saints  at  a  great  sacrifice,  and  having, 
therefore,  more  reason  than  ever  to  be  freed  from 
Mormon  control,  they  renewed  in  1857  their  former 
efforts  for  separation.  James  M.  Crane,  a  printer 
from  Virginia,  founder  of  the  first  whig  journal  in 
California,  was  dispatched  to  Washington  to  advocate 
the  measure,  and  to  remain  as  delegate  when  a  terri- 
tory should  be  organized.  The  adjustment  of  the 
Utah  difficulty  restored  the  Salt  Lake  City  influence. 
Carson  county  was  reorganized,  with  J.  S.  Childs  as 
probate  judge,  and  an  election  was  held,  at  which 
the  so-called  Mormon  party  carried  the  day,  H.  B. 
Clemens  being  chosen  representative  and  L.  Aber- 
nethy  sheriff.  Paying  little  attention  to  these  pro- 
ceedings, the  anti-Mormon  clique  urged  Crane  to 
continue  his  work  at  the  capital,  and  held  an  election 
in  1859  for  adopting  a  constitution,  modelled  after 
that  of  California,  and  for  choosing  officers  to  sustain 
it,  Isaac  Hoop  being  declared  governor,  and  A.  S. 
Dorsey  secretary  of  state.  Hoop's  election  was  af- 
firmed in  I860,  J.  J.  Musser  succeeding  Crane  on  his 
decease  in  the  latter  year.  Hoop's  administration 
passed  little  beyond  the  delivery  of  a  speech  before 
the  legislature  at  Genoa.  As  the  attendance  was  in- 
sufficient for  a  quorum,  the  body  adjourned  without 
action. 

The  cause  of  this  abortive  attempt  at  legislation, 
and  the  sudden  indifference  of  the  people,  lay  in  the 
discovery  of  the  Comstock  lode,  which  absorbed  all 
attention,  and  finally  secured  the  vainly-sought  con- 
cession from  congress.  Miners  rushed  in  from  Cali- 
fornia and  elsewhere,  all  intent  on  sharing  in  its  treas- 
ures. It  was  a  repetition  on  a  smaller  scale  of  the 
events  of  1849  of  California,  with  its  attendant  spec- 
ulation and  extravagance,  its  mixture  of  races  and 
classes,  its  transformations  and  abnormities.  The 


ISAAC  ROOP.  397 

community  embraced  the  usual  admixture  of  the 
rough  elements,  with  their  train  of  loose  women, 
gambling  dens,  and  outrages  ;  but  they  found  a  check 
in  the  self-reliant  class  of  sturdy  diggers,  who,  trained 
in  California,  took  early  steps  to  proclaim  at  informal 
meetings  a  series  of  wholesome  laws,  guarded  by  the 
spirit  of  vigilance. 

Camps  sprang  up  in  different  directions,  centering 
foremost  in  the  town  now  rising  at  the  main  point  of 
discovery  under  the  name  of  Virginia  city,  at  first  a 
collection  of  tents,  but  rapidly  filled  with  stone  and 
brick  edifices  as  the  ledges  beneath  her  gave  token  of 
permanency.  Officially  she  gained  the  dignity  of 
county  seat  only,  and  but  few  public  buildings  graced 
the  leading  town  of  Nevada.  Her  costliest  public 
work  was  the  conveyance  of  water  from  beyond  the 
Washoe  valley,  at  a  cost  of  $2,000,000. 

For  several  years  flowed  the  current  of  prosperity 
undisturbed,  marked  by  the  advance  in  the  price  of 
mines  to  more  than  $6,000  per  lineal  foot.  Finding 
that  some  deposits  were  becoming  exhausted,  the 
leading  stockholders  sought  to  realize.  The  result 
was  a  panic,  followed  by  the  departure  of  many  resi- 
dents, and  a  decline  in  business,  notably  on  the  Corn- 
stock.  Meanwhile  a  number  of  other  promising 
districts  had  been  disclosed,  such  as  Reese  river, 
Tuscarora,  and  Eureka,  which  tended  to  sustain  the 
production  of  precious  metals  at  a  high  figure. 

In  1869  came  a  glittering  revival  of  the  mining 
industry,  in  the  discovery  and  development  of  the 
White  Pine  district,  with  deposits  of  chloride  far  sur- 
passing in  richness  any  so  far  revealed  in  the  state. 
A  rush  of  miners  set  in,  sufficient  to  create  several 
large  towns,  but  the  deposit  was  shallow  and  the  col- 
lapse came  quickly.  In  1872  broke  out  another  ex- 
citement, caused  by  the  discovery  of  the  Crown  Point 
and  Belcher  ledges,  on  the  Comstock,  and  those  at 
Pioche.  Nevada  stocks  advanced  in  value  in  the 
San  Francisco  market  from  $10,000,000  to  $80,000,000 


398  GOVERNMENT-NEVADA. 

within  five  months.  Again  came  a  fall  of  $60,000,000 
within  ten  days.  Then  came  to  the  relief  the  Virginia 
Consolidated  and  California  mines,  with  the  largest  of 
Comstock  bonanzas,  yielding  over  $100,000,000  within 
five  years.  The  excitement  rose  for  a  time  to  fever 
heat,  and  shares  rated  a  year  or  two  before  at  less 
than  a  dollar  reached  $800,  only  to  fall  soon  afterward 
at  a  tremendous  pace,  carrying  with  them  a  host  of 
other  mines,  and  ruining  thousands.  This  disaster 
was  preceded  by  the  almost  entire  destruction  by  fire 
of  Virginia  City,  which,  however,  rose  quickly  from 
her  ashes. 

Every  excitement  or  depression  implied  to  Nevada 
a  corresponding  influx  of  population,  with  increase  of 
capital  for  sustaining  settlements  and  industries,  or  an 
exodus  and  dispersion,  leaving  behind  it  deserted 
towns  and  abandoned  industries.  The  vagaries  of 
fortune  affected  almost  everything,  and  the  frequent 
fluctuations  showed  that  the  unearthing  of  precious 
metals  was  at  best  a  gamble. 

The  result  of  the  first  excitement  was  to  render 
California  more  ready  to  support  the  cause  of  Nevada 
in  the  way  of  her  erection  into  territory,  and  several 
bills  were  presented  before  congress.  That  of  Green 
from  Missouri  was  the  one  finally  passed,  March  2, 
1861,  and  this  occurring  on  the  eve  of  the  great  civil 
war,  Battle-born  became  a  favorite  soubriquet  for  the 
sage-brush  state.  The  name  Nevada,  contained  in 
the  earlier  petitions  to  congress,  was  appropriately 
retained  in  preference  to  a  number  of  other  sugges- 
tions, for  this  plateau  region  is  a  part  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada. 

The  first  formal  governor  was  James  W.  Nye,  a 
lawyer,  born  in  Massachusetts  in  1815,  whose  repu- 
tation as  a  political  orator  in  supporting  free-soil  and 
anti-slavery  principles  had  procured  for  him  the  sou- 
briquet of  Grey  Eagle,  and  assisted  him  in  1857  to 
the  position  of  commissioner  of  police  at  New  York, 
as  it  now  did  to  the  present  office,  despite  his  leanings 


JAMES   W.  NYE.  399 

otherwise  to  the  democracy.  With  him  were  associ- 
ated, as  territorial  secretary,  Orion  Clemens  of  Mis- 
souri, accompanied  by  his  brother  Samuel,  since 
famous  as  the  humorist,  Mark  Twain;  George  Turner, 
chief  justice;  H.  M.  Jones  and  G.  M.  Mott,  associate 
justices,  for  whom  three  judicial  districts  were  created. 

At  the  election  now  held,  with  over  five  thousand 
votes,  fully  four  fifths  republican,  J.  Cradlebaugh,  late 
judge,  was  chosen  delegate,  and  a  legislature  formed 
of  nine  council  men  and  fifteen  representatives.  Out 
of  the  nine  electoral  districts  the  legislature  created 
the  counties  of  Douglas,  Ormsby,  and  Storey — both 
of  the  last  named  in  honor  of  officers  fallen  in  battle 
against  Nevada  Indians — Washoe,  Lyon,  Esmeralda, 
Churchill,  Roop — named  after  the  first  informal  gov- 
ernor— and  Humboldt.  The  eastern  districts  had 
barely  population  enough  to  constitute  the  usual  corps 
of  officers.  In  course  of  time  the  rise  of  new  mining 
districts  led  to  the  formation  of  Lander ;  named  after 
F.  W.  Lander;  Nye,  after  the  first  formal  governor; 
Lincoln,  Elko,  White  Pine,  and  Eureka. 

The  area  of  Nevada,  first  placed  at  about  81,000 
square  miles,  was  enlarged  to  112,090,  of  which  1,690 
are  covered  with  water.  The  boundary  between  Cal- 
ifornia and  Utah  had  always  been  in  dispute,  even 
part  of  Carson  valley  being  claimed  for  the  former. 
After  several  petitions  to  congress  a  boundary  com- 
mission was  appointed,  but  wearied  by  the  continued 
delay,  both  California  and  Nevada  surveyed  portions 
of  the  line  along  the  Sierra,  and  the  former  agreed,  in 
1863,  to  surrender  its  jurisdiction  over  Esmeralda 
county  in  exchange  for  the  surrender  of  Lassen  county, 
where  shortly  before  the  dispute  had  evoked  an  appeal 
to  force.  In  1866  a  degree  on  the  east  was  added  to 
Nevada  and  the  region  north  of  Colorado  river,  but 
her  request  for  more  of  Utah  and  Idaho  territory  was 
disregarded.  In  1874  the  California  line  was  finally 
surveyed. 

It  was  not  desirable  that  the  capital  should  be  at  a 


400  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

mining  camp,  and  despite  the  claims  of  Virginia  City, 
it  was  located  at  Carson,  founded  in  1858  by  A.  V. 
Z.  Curry,  a  pioneer,  and  a  man  of  remarkable  enter- 
prise, a  builder,  a  miner,  and  territorial  councillor. 
The  town  lay  in  Eagle  valley,  where  Frank  Hall  and 
his  companion  had  first  settled  five  years  previously. 
It  was  well  situated  as  a  business  centre  for  Carson 
valley,  and  contained  in  1860  a  journal,  a  water  com- 
pany, a  seminary,  and  a  telegraph  office.  The  first 
capitol  was  Curry's  stone  building.  Subsequently  a 
large  appropriation  was  made  for  a  finer  edifice. 

The  legislature  met  October  1861,  and  promptly 
increased  the  number  of  members  to  thirteen  council- 
men  and  twenty-six  assemblymen.  Persons  with 
negro,  Indian,  or  Chinese  blood,  were  deprived  of 
equal  rights  with  white  men  before  the  law.  A  law 
was  passed  to  prevent  noisy  amusements  and  gambling 
on  Sundays,  and  so  place  a  check  on  the  vicious 
classes,  ever  following  in  the  train  of  miners.  A  tax 

O 

of  forty  cents  on  every  $100  of  taxable  property  was 
imposed  for  territorial  purposes,  and  sixty  cents  for 
county  support ;  also  a  poll-tax  of  two  dollars,  which 
was  soon  doubled.  The  miners  so  far  remained  un- 
taxed.  A  most  commendable  measure  was  the  pay- 
ment of  Nevada's  share  of  the  war  debt  with  a 
promptness  which  excelled  all  other  states  and 
territories. 

The  growing  magnitude  of  the  mining  interests, 
and  the  rise  of  new  districts,  with  consequent  addi- 
tions to  the  population,  roused  ambition  for  the 
dignity  of  statehood.  Already  in  December  1862  an 
act  was  approved  to  frame  a  constitution  and  state 
government,  which  the  people  endorsed  with  a  ma- 
jority of  five-eighths  out  of  a  total  of  8,162  votes.  In 
their  eagerness  to  promote  their  own  political  ends,  the 
delegates  provided  that  the  state  offices  should  be 
filled  by  the  same  vote  which  adopted  the  constitu- 
tion. This  created  dissension  among  the  hitherto 
dominant  union  party,  and  the  secede rs  joined  the 


H.  S.  BLASDEL.  401 

democrats  for  the  purpose  of  defeating  an  organic 
law  thus  hampered,  and  containing  also  a  clause  for 
taxing  mining  property,  to  which  miners  were  of 
course  opposed. 

A  new  constitutional  convention  was  called  in  1864, 
substantially  resembling  the  former,  except  that  it 
proposed  only  to  tax  the  products  of  mines.  The  act 
was  adopted  by  a  majority  of  nine-elevenths  in  a  vote 
of  11,393.  At  the  same  time  were  chosen  the  legis- 
lature and  delegate  to  congress,  Cradlebaugh  being 
reflected  on  the  independent  ticket,  with  the  demo- 
cratic candidate  close  behind,  and  far  in  advance  of 
the  republican.  Then  came  the  proclamation  of 
October  31,  admitting  Nevada  as  a  state,  followed  by 
new  elections,  whereat  the  general  recognition  of  the 
prompt  action  of  the  federal  government  helped  to 
regain  the  ascendency  of  the  republicans  by  a  major- 
ity of  3,232  in  a  vote  of  16,420.  Only  two  democrats 
obtained  seats  in  the  legislature.  H.  S.  Blasdel  be- 
came governor  for  two  terms,  and  H.  G.  Worthing- 
ton  was  sent  to  congress,  and  was  soon  succeeded  by 
D.  R.  Ashley.  Thither  went  also  the  two  senators, 
W.  M.  Stewart,  the  influential  Comstock  lawyer, 
and  ex-governor  Nve,  both  beino;  reflected  for  the 

-¥  ^ 

following  term.  De  Long,  the  opponent  of  Stewart, 
in  1868,  was  appeased  with  the  mission  to  Japan, 
which  he  filled  with  credit. 

The  gathering  strength  of  the  democratic  party 
appears  somewhat  remarkable  in  the  state,  which 
owed  its  existence  to  an  attack  on  the  integrity  of  the 
nation,  and  displayed  its  patriotism  by  its  prompt 
contribution  toward  the  war  debt,  containing,  as  it 
did,  for  a  long  period,  only  one  recognized  party — the 
loyal  one.  The  manifestation  was  rather  local,  and 
directed  against  monopoly  and.  corruption  among  re- 
publicans ;  yet  a  number  among  the  inflowing  miners 
had  southern  and  Mormon  sympathies.  Nevada 
continued  highly  devoted  to  the  union,  and  the  proof 
came  in  liberal  subscriptions  to  the  sanitary  fund, 

C.  B.— II.     26 


402  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

amounting  to  over  $170,000  during  1862-5,  besides  a 
large  sum  raised  by  the  otherwise  pronounced  non- 
unionist,  R.  C.  Gridley,  with  his  historic  sack  of  flour. 
This  famous  sack,  originally  given  in  payment  of  a 
wager  on  the  election  of  mayor  at  Austin,  was  carried 
from  town  to  town  and  sold  and  resold  at  auction  for 
enormous  sums  for  the  benefit  of  the  sanitary  fund. 
Gridley  passed  an  entire  year  in  travelling  with  it 
throughout  Nevada  and  California,  realizing  amid  an 
outburst  of  loyal  excitement  the  sum  of  $175,000. 

In  1861  Nevada  added  a  company  to  California's 
volunteer  regiments,  and  when  in  1863  an  order  came 
to  raise  a  battalion  of  cavalry  in  the  territory,  six 
companies  were  formed,  mustering  five  hundred  strong, 
besides  six  companies  of  infantry  of  similar  strength. 
They  were  enrolled  for  service  on  union  battle-fields, 
but  the  threatening  attitude  of  the  Indians  made  it 
necessary  to  retain  them  for  the  defence  of  their  own 
lands. 

The  long-nursed  resentment  roused  among  the  In- 
dians by  the  cruelty  of  trappers  was  early  visited 
upon  unsuspecting  immigrants,  whose  effects,  moreover, 
aroused  their  cupidity.  Small  parties  seldom  es- 
caped without  molestation,  and  many  were  annihi- 
lated without  even  a  survivor  to  tell  the  tale.  In 
1857  a  caravan  of  twenty-two  immigrants  had  a 
severe  contest  with  P&h  I^tes  at  a  place  named 
Battle  Mountain,  in  coiVfme'moration  of  the  event. 
This  same  tribe  soon  afterward  offered  to  aid  the  set- 
tlers against  the  Washoes.  The  latter  were  pro- 
pitiated, while  the  Pah  Utes  roused  up  other  tribes 
to  continue  the  warfare.  Lassen,  the  guide,  was 
among  their  victims.  The  white  men  retaliated  on 
innocent  and  guilty  alike,  and  so  thoroughly  cas- 
tigated the  natives,  that  during  the  hard  winter  of 
1859-60  few  ventured  forth  to  accept  the  supplies 
tendered  to  them,  lest  they  should  be  poisoned  or 
entrapped.  Others,  also,  held  aloof,  embittered  at 


MAJOR  ORMSBY.  403 

the  loss  of  their  kindred  and  of  their  favorite  hunting 
grounds,  such  as  Honey  Lake  valley,  claimed  by 
Winnemucca. 

In  the  spring  of  1860  the  Indians  gathered  at 
Pyramid  lake,  and  after  reciting  their  grievances  most 
of  the  chiefs  declared  for  war,  though  Winnemucca, 
as  the  principal  chieftain,  shrewdly  abstained  from 
openly  committing  himself  while  fomenting  the  war 
feeling.  Meanwhile  Mogoannoga,  or  Captain  Soo,  of 
Humboldt  meadows,  hastened  away  with  a  few  braves 
and  put  an  end  to  the  discussion  by  opening  hostilities. 
In  league  with  others  they  threw  themselves  upon 
the  smaller  settlements,  especially  in  the  north-west, 
plundering  and  burning  in  their  track. 

The  smouldering  anger  of  the  people  now  burst 
forth  in  vengeful  excitement.  Couriers  flew  right 
and  left  to  warn  prospectors  and  out-lying  camps ;  an 
appeal  was  sent  to  California  for  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion, and  companies  were  mustered  in  all  the  towns. 
The  advance  force  of  105  men  removed  early  in  May 
to  Truckee  river,  near  the  present  Wads  worth,  poorly 
accoutred  and  worse  disciplined.  Here  they  allowed 
themselves  to  be  drawn  into  a  narrow  defile,  where 
they  were  attacked  at  a  disadvantage.  Realizing  their 
danger  many  took  to  flight,  while  the  rest,  recogniz- 
ing the  need  of  harmonious  action,  united  under  one 
leader,  Major  Ormsby ;  but  too  late.  Elated  by  their 
success  the  Indians  pressed  eagerly  upon  the  devoted 
band,  pouring  in  their  bullets  and  poisoned  arrows, 
and  leaving  over  two  score  of  their  dead  bodies  upon 
the  field. 

The  effect  of  this  disaster  was  to  drive  many  out 
of  the  county.  The  remaining  inhabitants,  even  in 
such  towns  as  Carson  and  Virginia  city,  prepared  for 
defence,  erecting  fortifications,  and  placing  women  and 
children  within  the  strongest  shelter.  Californians 
responded  promptly  to  the  cry  of  distress.  Volun- 
teers marched  from  different  points  to  the  rescue, 
Downieville  alone  sending  165  men  who  reached  Vir- 


404  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

ginia  city  on  foot  in  five  days.  The  government  also 
sent  troops,  and  contributions  flowed  in  from  all  parts 
of  the  coast.  Before  the  end  of  the  month  800  men 
were  in  the  field,  including  200  regulars  The  mere 
appearance  of  this  force  sufficed  to  restore  safety  to 
the  central  districts  and  permit  the  reestablishment 
of  the  interrupted  stage  and  pony  express  lines. 

The  main  body  compelled  the  hostile  tribes  to  re- 
treat from  Truckee  river  after  an  encounter  in  which 
twenty-five  Indians  were  killed.  The  tribes  there- 
upon dispersed  and  the  volunteers  disbanded,  leaving 
pursuit  to  the  regulars.  The  Pah  Utes,  who  were 
the  leaders  of  the  movement,  promised  to  remain 
quiet  for  a  year,  while  congress  should  consider  the 
compensation  due  for  their  lands.  A  permanent  post, 
Fort  Churchill,  was  constructed  on  Carson  river  to 
keep  watch  over  them.  Meanwhile  Indian-agent 
Dodge  set  aside  reservations  at  Walker  and  Pyramid 
lakes,  and  in  the  Truckee  valley,  where  food  supplies 
were  abundant. 

Notwithstanding  all  precautions,  frequent  raids, 
under  the  pressure  of  want,  continued  to  arouse  the 
vengeance  of  settlers,  and  early  in  1862  the  Owen 
river  tribes  were  provoked  into  a  formidable  out- 
break, which  led  to  a  campaign  and  the  loss  of  many 
lives.  Desultory  engagements  took  place  in  different 
sections,  chiefly  in  the  north  and  east,  and  the  opera- 
tions in  Oregon,  Idaho,  and  Utah  extended  in  a  meas- 
ure into  Nevada.  The  occasional  picking-off  of  a 
stage  driver  or  emigrant  by  the  long  rifles  of  the  In- 
dians was  atoned  for  at  the  first  opportunity  by  the 
massacre  of  a  band  or  the  destruction  of  a  village. 
In  a  battle  at  Fish  creek,  in  January  1866,  the  vol- 
unteers defeated  Captain  John  of  the  Warner  lake 
Shoshones  with  a  loss  of  35  warriors.  In  the  follow- 
ing month  the  same  expedition  claimed  to  have 
avenged  renewed  raids  on  Paradise  valley  with  the 
slaughter  in  battle  of  115  men. 

This  year  was  one  of  renewed  activity,  and  the  re- 


PAH  UTE  WAR.  405 

suit  was  a  loss  to  the  Indians  of  172  killed  and  about 
the  same  number  captured.  The  lesson  proved  effec- 
tive, for  the  state  was  henceforth  comparatively  free 
from  raids.  In  1868  the  troops  in  Nevada  consisted 
of  eight  companies,  chiefly  cavalry,  which  garrisoned 
camps  McDermit,  Winfield  Scott,  Ruby,  Halleck, 
and  Fort  Churchill.  Four  years  later  McDermit 
and  Halleck  were  occupied  by  two  companies. 
Nevada  suffered  on  the  whole  less  than  many  other 
states,  owing  partly  to  the  less  war-like  character  of 
the  tribes,  partly  to  the  swift  punishment  inflicted. 
Probably  not  over  300  whites  have  been  killed  there, 
while  the  savages  suffered  in  far  greater  proportion. 
The  reservation,  provided  by  treaty  of  1863  for  the 
Shoshones  of  eastern  Nevada,  was  established  only 
in  1877,  at  Duck  valley,  Elko  county.  Another  had 
been  formed  in  1875,  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  the 
state,  on  Moapa  river.  The  more  self-asserting  west- 
ern Pah  Utes,  numbering  a  little  over  1,000,  wero 
early  assigned  to  the  reservation  on  Truckee  and 
Walker  rivers,  covering  644,000  acres.  It  was  sur- 
veyed and  approved  in  1874.  The  northern  Pah 
Utes,  with  the  Warner  lake  and  Malheur  Shoshones 
were  sent  in  1870  to  a  tract  in  eastern  Oregon.  During 
the  war  in  that  section  in  1877-8,  the  Winnemuccas 
maintained  a  not  very  reassuring  neutrality,  and 
rather  promoted  the  destruction  of  the  Malheur  agen- 
cy. This  was  subsequently  sold  and  the  Shoshones 
and  Pah  Utes  were  sent  to  the  Simcoe  reservation  in 
Washington.  Here  the  Yakimas  persecuted  them  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  returned  to  Nevada.  The 
Washoes  were  not  granted  a  reservation,  but  roamed 
about  on  the  outskirts  of  settlements,  acting  at  times 
as  servants,  and  sinking  under  vice  and  disease. 

The  close  of  the  civil  war  was  followed  by  the 
reorganization  of  the  democrats  throughout  the  coast, 
and  they  gradually  returned  to  power.  In  1870  they 
elected  their  candidates  to  most  of  the  important 


406  GOVERNMENT-NEVADA. 

offices  in  Nevada,  L.  R.  Bradley,  a  prominent  stock- 
dealer,  being  chosen  governor,  and  Charles  Kendall 
member  of  congress.  This  remarkable  change,  dis- 
tinguished by  majorities  for  the  party  as  large  as  the 
republicans  had  been  used  to  obtain,  must  be  attrib- 
uted greatly  to  an  increase  in  the  democratic  vote 
caused  by  immigration. 

Another  power  was  making  itself  felt  even  more  in 
controlling  party,  patriotism,  and  talent;  to  wit, 
money.  It  had  been  glaringly  manifest  in  mining 
litigation  during  the  sixties,  when  the  lavish  distribu- 

O  O  ' 

tion  of  coin  did  not  stop  with  lawyers  and  witnesses. 
Whether  judges  were  bribed  or  not,  the  rich  contest- 
ants took  the  precaution  of  manipulating  the  elections 
so  as  to  obtain  a  judge  on  the  bench  favorable  to 
their  interests. 

The  same  lever  was  conspicuously  used  in  1872  by 
two  prominent  aspirants  for  the  senatorship.  One 
was  William  Sharon,  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  of  quaker 
descent.  Like  some  other  famous  men  he  had  once 
owned  an  interest  in  a  flat-boat.  Failing  to  make 
this  profitable,  he  turned  to  law,  and  although  no 
opening  for  practice  appeared,  he  acquired  thereby 
a  mental  training  which  proved  useful  in  his  more 
promising  career  of  merchant,  banker,  and  stock 
manipulator.  Opposed  to  him  was  John  Percy  Jones. 

The  victory  was  expected  to  fall  to  the  one  who 
should  be  most  lavish  with  his  funds,  and  Sharon, 
with  the  bank  of  California  at  his  back,  was  consid- 
ered the  strongest,  although  it  has  not  been  alleged 
that  he  used  its  funds  for  that  purpose.  Jones  was 
a  mining  operator,  and  a  pronounced  bull  in  the  stock 
market,  and  therefore  a  bear  movement  was  set  afoot 
to  disable  him,  and  charges  were  trumped  up  against 
him  of  having  fired  a  mine,  involving  the  loss  of  life 
as  well  as  property,  in  order  to  profit  by  the  conse- 
quent decline.  He  was  a  favorite  with  the  miners, 
however,  who  called  him  the  Nevada  commoner. 
The  machinations  against  him  had  little  effect,  and 


WILLIAM   SHARON.  407 

Sharon  withdrew.  Jones'  only  remaining  opponent 
was  Nye,  whose  generally  acknowledged  merit  faded 
beside  the  attraction  of  the  rich  commoner's  wealth, 
and  thus  the  latter  entered  the  senate  in  1873. 

Jones  proved  himself  no  mere  figure-head.  He 
possessed  both  tact  and  talent,  as  indicated  by  his 
appointment  as  chairman  of  the  monetary  commission 
of  1876,  in  which  position  he  gained  credit  for  himself 
as  well  as  his  state.  European  bondholders  and  east- 
ern bankers  had  long  been  aiming  to  establish  a  gold 
standard,  and  had,  indeed,  prevailed  on  congress  to 
ignore  the  silver  dollar,  so  much  so  that  by  1878  it 
had  depreciated  nearly  twenty  per  cent.  The  mone- 
tary commission  induced  that  body  to  adopt  a  remedial 
measure  by  ordering  the  coinage  monthly  of  between 
two  and  four  millions  in  standard  dollars  for  circula- 
tion, and  to  consider  the  advisability  of  restoring  sil- 
ver to  an  equality  with  gold.  This  question  was  long- 
in  agitation,  influenced  not  a  little  by  the  speeches  of 
Jones  in  favor  of  silver,  and  against  the  interference 
of  foreign  bond-holders  with  American  finances.  His 
ability  and  attitude  earned  for  him  a  reelection  in 
1379. 

The  political  career  of  William  Sharon  is  related 
elsewhere  in  these  chronicles.  In  1874  he  was  elected 
senator  for  the  six  years'  term,  partly  by  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  Sutro  tunnel;  but  through  the  pressure 
of  his  business  affairs  was  prevented  from  taking  his 
seat  until  1876,  and  at  times  was  absent  from  the  ses- 
sions after  1877.  Jones  attended  to  the  duties  of  both, 
sustained  somewhat  by  congressman  T.  Wren,  also  a 
republican,  who  replaced  W.  Woodburn,  the  previous 
representative,  C.  W.  Kendall,  having  been  a  demo- 
crat. 

In  1878  the  republicans  regained  the  local  ascend- 
ency by  replacing  in  office  the  incorruptible  and 
practical  L.  R.  Bradley,  who  had  held  the  office  of 
governor  for  two  terms,  with  J.  H.  Kinkead,  long 
connected  with  Nevada  politics,  as  treasurer,  and  in 


408  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

other  positions.     They  also  gained  every  office  save 
two,  while  in  the  legislature  their  majority  was  thir- 
teen in  the  senate  and  thirty-two  in  the  assembly. 
Two  years  later,  however,  came  a  defeat,  one  of  the 
most  disastrous  inflicted  on  the  party.     Of  sixty-one 
members  of  the  legislature   only  nine  were   republi- 
cans, leaving  them  a  majority   in  the   senate  of  only 
five,  while  in  the  assembly  they  formed  an  insignifi- 
cant minority  of  seven  members   in   all.     The  able 
journalist,  R.  M.  Daggett,  yielded  his  place  in  con- 
gress to  G.  W.  Cassidy,  reflected  for  the  following 
term,  and  James  G.  Fair,  of  the  bonanza  firm,  was 
persuaded  by  the  democrats  to  stand  for  United  States 
senator.     The  same  party  elected  J.  W.  Adams  gov- 
ernor in  1882,  but  most  of  the  other  offices  were  gained 
by  republicans. 

A  deeply  agitated  question  for  several  years  had 
been  the  mining  tax.  The  extravagance  of  flush- 
time  territorial  government  had  burdened  the  young 
state  with  a  debt  of  $264,000.  In  order  to  pay  this, 
a  tax  was  imposed  of  twenty -five  cents  on  every 
$100  worth  of  taxable  property,  while  the  general 
state  tax  became  $1,  and  the  county  tax  $1.50,  in  ad- 
dition to  which  were  heavy  license  fees,  and  a  levy  of 
one  dollar  on  every  $100  worth  of  products  from 
mines,  instead  of  the  proposed  taxation  on  mining 
property  on  the  same  basis  as  other  property.  Not 
content  with  this  discrimination  in  their  favor,  mine- 
owners  sought  to  escape  all  imposts. 

The  first  legislature  considered  it  wise  to  pass 
a  law  which  permitted  the  taxation  of  only  three 
fourths  of  the  products,  after  deducting  twenty  dol- 
lars per  ton  for  assumed  cost  of  reduction.  This 
being  declared  unconstitutional,  the  session  of  1867 
reduced  the  tax  to  twenty-five  cents  on  every  $100 
worth  of  bullion.  Subsequently  an  abatement  was 
allowed  of  from  fifty  to  ninety  per  cent,  according  to 
the  grade  of  ore.  This  enabled  the  low-grade  ores  of 
the  Comstock  to  be  worked  without  tax. 


FINANCIAL   CONDITION.  409 

These  concessions  had  been  obtained  from  readily 
influenced  legislatures,  chiefly  through  the  manipula- 
tions of  the  bank  of  California,  which  controlled  the 
Comstock.  When  the  great  bonanza  of  the  Consoli- 
dated Virginia  and  California  mines  was  disclosed,  in 
which  the  bank  had  no  share,  it  no  longer  sought  to 
maintain  the  exemption.  The  people  succeeded,  there- 
fore, in  electing  representatives  pledged  to  enact  more 
stringent  laws  for  the  taxation  of  mines,  and  in  1875 
a  tax  was  levied  of  $1.50  for  every  $100,  or  at  the 
same  rate  that  other  property  was  assessed.  The 
bonanza  firm  protested  and  refused  to  pay.  The 
question  became  a  political  issue,  and  was  inserted  as 
a  plank  in  the  republican  platform.  The  entire  state, 
and  especially  Storey  county,  was  pressed  for  funds  at 
this  time  to  meet  expenses  and  debts.  The  bonanza 
firm,  the  parties  principally  interested,  agreed  to  a 
compromise,  with  reductions  of  thirty-one  and  one 
half  per  cent  on  the  bullion  tax.  The  governor 
vetoed  the  measure,  and  the  state  received  nearly 
$370,000;  but  the  law  was  subsequently  repealed, 
strictly  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  people. 

The  financial  condition  of  the  state  was  by  no 
means  unsatisfactory  The  territorial  debt  was  grad- 
ually paid  off,  but  fresh  loans  had  been  contracted 
chiefly  for  the  insane  asylum  and  other  public  build- 
ings, amounting  in  1881  to  about  $400,000,  mostly  in 
irreducible  bonds  at  five  per  cent.  After  this  it  was 
resolved  to  cover  the  entire  debt  with  the  school 
fund,  bearing  interest  at  four  per  cent.  The  measure 
was  advantageous  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  the  fund, 
partly  by  preventing  speculation  in  the  latter. 

The  expense  of  the  state  government  toward  the 
end  of  the  seventies  had  been  nearly  $450,000  a  year. 
In  1881  a  reduction  of  about  $26,000  was  effected  by 
diminishing  the  number  of  legislators  to  sixty,  and 
reducing  the  pay  of  state  officers,  based,  as  this  was, 
on  the  cost  of  living  in  flush  times,  and,  therefore,  out 
of  accord  with  the  later  conditions.  Economy  was 


410  GOVERNMENT— NEVADA. 

also,  prompted  by  the  decline  in  real  and  personal 
property,  from  nearly  $27,000,000  in  1873,  to  $21,- 
300,000  in  1878,  and  the  falling  off  in  population  to 
about  50,000,  according  to  the  tenth  census. 

To  some  the  outlook  appeared  so  gloomy  that  they 
favored  the  bill  introduced  in  congress  in  1882  for 
annexing  the  state  to  California;  but  the  great  major- 
ity among  the  population  were  self-reliant  and  hopeful. 
They  pointed  to  the  increase  of  property  valuation  to 
$27,000,000  in  that  very  year,  to  the  gain  in  popula- 
tion, and  to  the  comparatively  small  burden  imposed 
by  the  state  upon  the  union,  for  it  had  received  much 
less  in  appropriations  than  other  sections,  and  had  a 
clean  record  as  to  its  public  trusts.  New  mining  dis- 
tricts are  opening,  fresh  resources  are  unfolding,  and 
the  growth  of  adjoining  territories  promises  further 
stimulus  so  that  the  prospects  of  Nevada  are  far 
from  discouraging. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

GOVERNMENT— MID-CONTINENT. 

EXPLORATION  OF  COLORADO— GOLD  DISCOVERIES— PROVISIONAL  AND  TER- 
RITORIAL GOVERNMENT— GOVERNOR  GILPIN— INDIAN  AFFAIRS— STATE- 
HOOD—TEXAS  UNDER  SPANISH  DOMINATION— REVOLUTION,  WAR,  AND 
INDEPENDENCE— UNION  WITH  THE  UNITED  STATES— MILITARY  AND 
JUDICIAL— CIVIL  WAR  AND  RECONSTRUCTION— PROGRESS— THE  MISSIS- 
SIPPI VALLEY. 

COLORADO  was  the  most  northerly  of  interior  states 
to  which  early  Spanish  conquerors  penetrated  in  their 
search  for  gold.  Whether  Coronado's  expedition  of 
1540  actually  reached  so  far  in  its  chase  after  the  de- 
lusive Quivira  is  uncertain,  yet  it  undoubtedly  ap- 
proached very  close  to  the  border  subsequently  stained 
by  the  mingled  blood  of  the  Comanches  and  their 
prey,  the  Santa  Fe  traders.  The  disappointment 
which  attended  this  expedition  cut  short  all  plans 
tending  in  this  direction.  When  New  Mexico  was 
reoccupied,  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  an 
advance  into  a  region  so  superior  as  Colorado  in  scenic 
beauty  and  varied  resources  was  opposed,  by  reason 
of  its  remoteness,  by  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  abo- 
rigines, and  by  the  vast  mountain  system,  which  rose 
to  block  the  way  beyond  the  headwaters  of  the  Rio 
Grande. 

Thus  was  it  left  for  over  two  centuries,  wrapped  in 
solitude,  disturbed  alone  by  occasional  invasions  at  its 
central-southern  gateway  by  the  advancing  colonists 
of  the  Santa  Fe  comandancia.  In  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  government  began  to  mani- 
fest an  interest  in  the  region  northward,  and  several 
exploring  expeditions  appear  to  have  entered  Colorado 

(411) 


412  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

in  the  fifties  and  sixties,  lured  partly  by  vague  rumors 
of  metallic  wealth.  One  of  these,  under  J.  M.  Rivera, 
reached  in  1761  the  Gunnison  river.  Similar  north- 
ward movements  took  place  along  the  coasts  on  both 
sides,  marked  on  the  Pacific  by  the  occupation  of 
California.  With  a  view  of  opening  a  land  route  to 
the  upper  California  missions,  friars  Dominguez  and 
Escalante  in  1776  passed  through  the  southwest  cor- 
ner of  Colorado  into  Utah.  Along  this  line  a  trail 
was  in  due  time  formed,  by  which  caravans  occasion- 
ally travelled  to  Los  Angeles. 

By  virtue  of  the  explorations  of  La  Salle  and  oth- 
ers, France  laid  a  vaguely  defined  claim  to  the  region 
north  of  and  to  some  extent  along  and  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  Spain  held  for  a  time  the  right  to  the 
country  west  of  the  river,  but  surrendered  it  in  1800 
to  France,  which  three  years  later  sold  it  to  the 
United  States.  The  new  owners  exhibited  greater 
interest  than  the  former  in  learning  something  of  the 
new  acquisition  into  which  trappers  were  pushing 
their  way.  Lieutenant  Pike  was  accordingly  sent  to 
explore  the  river  in  1805-7,  but  on  penetrating  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Arkansas,  he  became  entangled  in 
the  mountains,  and  stumbling  on  the  Rio  Grande  set- 
tlements of  the  Spaniards,  was  detained  as  prisoner 
for  a  year.  At  Santa  Fe  he  found  several  American 
trappers  and  traders,  who  made  this  their  headquar- 
ters after  their  trips  into  the  adjoining  wildernesses. 
Among  them  were  J.  Pursley,  who  claimed  to  have 
found  gold  in  Colorado.  About  the  same  time  E. 
Williams  led  a  trapping  party  on  the  great  backbone 
of  the  continent,  and  Workman  and  Spencer  passed 
through  the  Colorado  canon  to  California. 

Ever  intent  on  the  westward  march  of  empire,  the 
United  States  in  1819  bargained  for  and  obtained 
from  Spain  the  cession  of  the  country  north  of  the 
Arkansas,  which  embraced  two -thirds  of  Colorado. 
This  was  regarded  simply  as  a  pathway  to  the  more 
coveted  possessions  on  the  Pacific  shore,  for  which  a 


LISA,  MAURICE,  BENT.  413 

deep  game  was  now  being  played  with  England. 
Other  expectations  regarding  the  trans-Missouri  ter- 
ritory were  disappointed  by  the  report  of  Major 
Long's  expedition,  dispatched  at  this  time  for  a  fresh 
exploration  of  the  country.  The  major  rashly  stamped 
the  entire  region  between  parallels  39°  and  49°,  for 
500  miles  east  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  as  a  waste 
covered  with  sand  and  stones.  Forthwith  appeared 
upon  the  maps  the  Great  American  desert,  to  raise 
an  ominous  barrier  against  westward  occupation,  and 
to  serve  as  a  stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  advocates 
before  congress  of  the  American  claim  to  Oregon. 

Private  enterprise  was  destined,  however,  gradu- 
ally to  remove  the  stigma,  and  render  to  this  region 
the  fair  name  which  it  deserved.  About  the  time 
of  Long's  visit,  St  Louis  traders  were  opening  a 
caravan  trade  with  Santa  Fe,  which,  passing  through 
the  southeast  corner  of  Colorado,  made  Bent's  fort 
an  entrepot  for  the  many  trading  posts  fostered 
by  the  protection  and  facilities  extended  by  that 
traffic.  M.  Lisa  had  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the 
fur-trade  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  century, 
under  Spanish  protection.  Now  American  trappers 
poured  in,  yet  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the 
thirties  that  the  first  important  fort  was  erected 
within  the  present  limits  of  Colorado.  This  was 
Bent's  fort,  founded  in  1832,  although  a  French 
trader  from  Detroit,  named  Maurice,  appears  to  have 
established  a  fortified  camp  two  years  earlier  on 
Adobe  creek.  After  this  sprang  up  a  number  of 
others  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Platte  and  Arkansas. 

The  fur  region  here  was  less  prolific  and  was  soon 
exhausted  under  the  onslaughts  of  trappers  and  of 
Indians,  drawn  hither  by  the  tempting  prizes  held 
forth  by  the  stations.  At  the  time  of  Fremont's 
exploring  journey,  in  1842-5,  only  a  remnant  of 
the  traders  remained,  most  of  the  employes  having 
changed  to  colonists,  living  in  a  primitive  manner 
with  their  Mexican  or  Indian  wives  and  half-breed 


414  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

children,  clustering  as  of  yore  round  defensive  struct- 
ures. With  declining  profits  the  Indians  had  become 
less  friendly;  and  accustomed  by  this  time  to  certain 
European  luxuries,  they  did  not  scruple  to  seek  by 
force  what  they  lacked  means  to  buy.  In  1844  the 
Utes  captured  Roubideau's  fort,  and  soon  after  Bent's 
fort  fell,  both  attended  by  the  massacre  of  the  men 
and  the  enslavement  of  the  women  and  children. 
During  the  war  in  1846  they  found  additional  pre- 
tence for  some  wide- spread  raids. 

The  Mexicans  had  early  established  farms  and 
ranges  on  the  upper  Rio  Grande,  and  El  Pueblo  on 
the  Arkansas  was  a  post  erected  for  the  protection  of 
an  agricultural  settlement  intended  to  supply  the 
trading  stations.  The  first  American  who  settled 
here,  presumably  in  the  twenties,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  James  Baker.  He  occupied  a  cabin  on 
Clear  creek,  four  miles  above  Denver,  and  had  full- 
grown  children  by  his  Indian  wife  in  1859.  The 
gold  migration  frigtened  him  away,  to  end  his  days 
in  the  mountains  of  Idaho.  Others  among  his  con- 
temporaries were  enterprising  men,  with  an  eye  to 
the  future,  James  Bonney,  for  instance,  founded  in 
1842  the  town  of  La  Junta.  Several  had  taken  the 
precaution  to  obtain  large  tracts  from  the  Mexican 
government,  one,  the  Vigil  and  St  Vrain  grant  cov- 
ering nearly  all  of  Colorado  south  of  the  Arkansas 
and  east  of  the  mountains,  and  another,  the  Nolan, 
stretching  south  of  Pueblo  for  forty  by  fifteen  miles. 
The  United  States  government  recognized  them,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  to  plan  the  limit  at  eleven  square 
leagues. 

The  aspirations  of  these  speculators  were  long  de- 
ferred. The  California  gold  fever  directed  attention 
away  from  the  intra-mountain  region  to  the  glittering 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  Nevertheless,  some  benefit  was 
derived  from  the  migration.  The  widest  current 
flowed  just  north  of  Colorado,  leaving  driblets  of 
traffic  for  the  south  Platte  settlers;  but  the  smaller 


SANTA  F#  TRAIL,  415 

stream  which  followed  the  Santa  Fe  trail  offered  more 
substantial  tokens  to  the  dwellers  on  the  Arkansas. 

Here  also  a  portion  of  the  Mormon  battalion  had 
been  quartered  during  the  winter  of  1846-7,  and  left 
the  impress  of  their  industry,  arid  troops  passed  by 
en  route  for  Mexico.  In  1850  the  United  States 
asserted  her  new  proprietory  rights  south  of  the 
Arkansas  by  erecting  Fort  Massachusetts  on  Ute 
creek,  near  Sangre  de  Cristo  pass,  subsequently 
moved  a  few  miles  southward  to  a  healthier  site, 
under  the  name  of  Fort  Garland.  It  was  intended 
partly  for  the  protection  of  the  Santa  Fe  route  and 
partly  to  hold  in  check  the  marauding  Utes. 

One  result  of  the  California  migration  was  a  series 
of  explorations  for  the  transcontinental  railway,  which 
was  constructed  a  decade  later.  It  demonstrated 
that  the  route  near  the  42d  parallel  was  the  best; 
and  thus  the  hopes  of  Colorado  were  once  more  dis- 
appointed; but  the  surveys  tended  to  make  better 
known  the  resources  of  the  country  and  remove  the 
aspersion  cast  upon  it  by  Long. 

Another  effect  of  the  gold  fever  was  to  lure  pros- 
pectors into  the  mountains  of  Colorado,  where  rumors 
lingered  of  gold  discoveries  made  by  early  trappers, 
and  by  Mexicans.  Indications  were  indeed  found  in 
1852,  but  it  was  not  until  1858  that  the  first  mining 
expedition,  composed  of  thirty  Cherokees,  attended 
by  a  dozen  white  persons,  under  the  leadership  of  G. 
Hicks,  entered  the  country  and  opened  up  the  placers. 
Their  march  roused  the  emluation  of  others,  so  that 
a  considerable  influx  took  place.  The  search  for  dig- 
gings produced  ho  brilliant  disclosures,  but  it  revealed 
the  advantages  of  many  districts  for  settlements,  and 
some  of  the  parties  resolved  to  seek  co  mpensation  for 
their  loss  of  time  from  later  comers  by  founding 
towns,  and  selling  them  the  lots.  Thus  rose  in  the 
south  Fontaine  city,  above  it  El  Paso,  on  the  site  of 
the  present  Colorado  springs,  and  close  to  the  site  of 
Denver,  the  towns  of  Montana  and  St  Charles.  No 


416  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

purchasers  arriving  for  some  time,  the  settlers,  mostly 
men  from  Lawrence  city,  Kansas,  abandoned  nearly 
all  the  locations. 

Meanwhile  Cherry  creek  had  revealed  several  dig- 
gings, and  the  importance  of  St  Charles  becoming 
manifest,  a  company  under  the  presidency  of  H. 
Allen,  a  surveyor  from  Council  Bluffs,  laid  out  a  rival 
location  on  the  opposite  bank  named  Auraria,  after  a 
Georgia  mining-camp.  During  the  winter  another 
Lawrence  party  arrived,  jumped  the  site  of  St 
Charles,  and  laid  out  a  town  called  Denver,  in  honor 
of  the  governor  of  Kansas.  The  first  house  is  said 
to  have  been  erected  by  G.  W.  Larimer,  whose  name 
is  borne  by  one  of  the  counties.  A  sharp  competition 
ensued  between  the  two  places  until  the  arrival  at 
Denver  in  1859  of  two  large  goods  trains.  The  su- 
periority thus  acquired  in  trade  insured  the  ascend- 
ency for  the  latter,  and  Auraria  sank  to  a  mere 
suburb. 

The  gold  discoveries  on  Cherry  creek,  and  the 
beauties  and  resources  of  the  country  generally,  were 
trumpeted  abroad  in  the  eastern  states  with  the  usual 
exaggeration,  notably  by  means  of  a  book,  the  Pikes 
Peak  Guide  and  Journal,  issued  by  D.  C.  Cakes,  one 
of  the  town  builders.  Business  depression  and  the 
political  turmoil  in  Kansas  had  revived  the  migration 
mania  among  a  large  number  of  people,  and  it  needed 
only  some  such  impulse  as  this  to  start  them  in  a 
given  direction. 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1859,  accord- 
ingly, a  movement  set  in  along  the  Arkansas,  the 
Smoky  Hill  fork,  and  the  Platte,  which  excelled  in 
magnitude  the  land  migration  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
Thousands  of  wagons  lined  the  routes,  and  by  April 
1859  the  vanguard  of  1200  immigrants  was  encamped 
round  Denver.  The  rush  was  premature.  Only  a 
few  diggings  of  importance  had  been  opened,  chiefly 
along  Clear  creek,  and  those  so  limited  in  extent, 


THE  GOLDEN  ERA.  417 

compared  with  first  impressions,  as  to  afford  room  but 
for  a  small  proportion  of  the  inflowing  current.  Addi- 
tional obstacles  were  presented  by  the  ignorance  of 
mining  methods,  and  by  the  abnormal  geological 
features.  The  first  check  to  the  glowing  expectations 
of  the  fortune -seekers  sufficed  to  dishearten  and  turn 
back  the  greater  part  of  the  100,000  persons  esti- 
mated to  have  started  for  Colorado  in  1859.  They 
were  full  of  bitter  denunciations  against  the  publishers 
of  various  delusive  accounts  and  against  the  country, 
and  did  not  fail  to  give  warning  to  the  additional 
thousands  en  route,  or  preparing  to  follow. 

The  40,000  who  remained  to  give  the  country  a 
fair  trial  before  condemning  it  were  rewarded  for  their 
perseverance.  Placers  were  found  in  different  direc- 
tions, on  the  tributaries  of  both  the  Platte  and  the 
Arkansas,  and  camps  sprang  up  in  rapid  succession, 
centering  around  the  towns  which  far-seeing  specula- 
tors had  founded,  such  as  Boulder  and  Central  city 
in  the  north,  Canon  city  and  Pueblo  in  the  south, 
and  about  midway  Colorado  springs,  near  a  site  pre- 
viously occupied  by  two  paper  towns.  This  was  the 
gold  era  of  Colorado,  during  which  it  developed  into 
a  territory,  and  laid  the  basis  for  a  greater  and  more 
stable  future. 

Daring  the  first  years  no  other  law  or  government 
found  general  recognition  save  the  regulations  framed 
at  the  informal  gatherings  of  miners,  and  varying 
somewhat  in  tone  in  the  different  localities.  Beyond 
the  pale  of  the  mining  districts  might  seemed  for  a 
time  the  only  arbitrator,  asserting  itself  in  squatter 
sovereignty.  Lands  were  taken  up  at  pleasure,  and 
usurped  by  the  next  comers  whose  fancy  they  pleased. 
Town  sites  changed  hands  in  the  same  easy  manner, 
occasionally  with  a  magnanimous  surrender  of  a  small 
portion  to  the  original  claimants. 

This  confusion  led  in  1859  to  a  meeting  in  the  Ar- 
kansas valley  to  consider  the  question  of  land  tenure. 

The  result  was  the  organization  of  El  Paso   Claim 
c.  B.-H.  27 


418  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

club,  which  kept  a  record  of  holdings,  and  tendered 
its  arbitration  in  case  of  disputes,  thus  foreshadowing 
a  provisional  government.  In  the  north  the  town- 
dwellers  found  time  between  the  intervals  of  business 
to  agitate  for  a  more  formal  government. 

Kansas  was  at  the  time  the  scene  of  a  desperate 
struggle  between  the  advocates  of  free  soil  and  slave 
soil,  during  which  territorial  legislatures  alternated 
with  state  assemblies.  It  was  a  question  under  which 
form  the  people  were  living.  If  a  territory,  Kansas 
extended  to  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  range ;  if  a 
state,  its  western  border  reached  not  within  three  de- 
grees of  the  great  cordillera. 

The  citizens  of  Auraria  took  the  territorial  side. 
They  called  a  mass  meeting,  which  organized  the  en- 
tire region  as  one  country,  named  Arapahoe,  after  one 
of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  plains,  with  the  seat  at 
Auraria.  A  representative  was  chosen  in  the  person 
of  A.  J.  Smith  to  procure  the  sanction  of  the  Kan- 
sas legislature.  He  was  not  admitted  to  that  body ; 
but  the  governor  promptly  responded  by  appointing  a 
judge  and  a  county  commissioner,  without  waiting 
for  or  heeding  the  action  of  the  legislature,  and  five 
counties  were  created,  with  the  needful  commissioners, 
who,  however,  did  not  assume  office,  the  county  choos- 
ing its  own  staff. 

Another  party  was  seized  with  higher  aspirations, 
prompted  by  the  alluring  vision  of  political  spoils. 
They  conceived  the  idea  of  a  separate  government 
under  the  title  of  Jefferson  territory,  and  dispatched 
two  delegates  to  congress.  One  of  these  was  A. 
Steinberger,  subsequently  notorious  as  a  king  of  a 
Pacific  group  of  islands.  Congress  paid  no  attention 
to  them ;  but  the  politicians  were  not  so  easily 
abashed.  They  considered  justly  enough  that  noth- 
ing was  jeopardized  by  asking  too  often  or  too  much. 
They  appealed,  moreover,  to  the  pride  of  the  people, 
urging  them  early  in  the  following  year  to  call  a  con- 
vention for  organizing  a  state,  or  at  least  a  territorial, 


R.  W.  STEELE.  419 

government.  Delegates  were  chosen,  mostly  by  ac- 
clamation. After  a  long  adjournment  the  delegates 
gathered,  being  about  equally  divided  for  state  and 
territorial  government,  and  with  other  political  dif- 
ferences. Finally  the  state  party  prevailed  and 
drafted  a  constitution,  only  to  have  it  rejected  by  the 
people.  At  a  poorly  attended  election  in  October 
1859,  both  the  remaining  parties,  the  Kansas  and  the 
territorial,  elected  delegates,  one  to  congress,  B.  D. 
Williams,  the  other  to  the  Kansas  legislature,  R.  E. 
Sopris.  Congress  remained  deaf,  but  Sopris  was 
admitted. 

Nothing  daunted  the  provisional  government 
clique  ordered  an  election  of  officers,  which  was  at- 
tended by  only  one-fourth  of  the  former  insignificant 
vote  of  8,000.  The  result  was  the  installation  of  R. 
W.  Steele  as  governor,  and  an  assembly  of  eight 
councilmen  and  twenty-four  representatives.  This 
body  passed  several  creditable  laws,  created  nine 
counties,  and  levied  a  tax  of  one  dollar  per  capita. 
There  was  no  objection  to  this  attempt  at  administra- 
tion, except  when  it  came  to  collecting  the  tax. 
Then  came  disavowals  from  many  quarters,  some 
counties  objecting  to  their  proposed  organization.  In 
most  districts  the  miners'  court  alone  ruled ;  in  a  few, 
loyalty  to  Kansas  prevailed ;  and  others  ignored  all 
proceedings,  wishing  still  to  send  petitions  to  an  ob- 
durate congress.  Order  was  otherwise  observed,  save 
among  the  criminal  class,  but  their  attempt  to  profit 
by  the  disorganization  and  escape  the  clutches  of  the 
law  was  generally  foiled  by  impromptu  popular  tribu- 
nals, whose  operations  at  Denver  against  thieves  as 
well  as  squatters,  gave  warning  to  evil-doers  through- 
out the  country. 

One  cause  for  the  failure  of  the  provisional  govern- 
ment lay  in  the  conflicting  claims  of  five  different  ter- 
ritories to  the  Pike's  Peak  region,  for  the  borders  of 
Utah,  Nebraska,  New  Mexico,  and  Dakota,  all  inter- 


420  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

mingled  here  with  those  of  Kansas,  and  appeals  to 
their  jurisdiction  might  have  been  made  at  any  time 
by  miners.  Among  other  reasons  must  be  counted 
the  instability  and  indifference  of  the  population,  and 
its  evasion  of  taxes. 

The  legislature  held  a  second  session,  utterly  unno- 
ticed, and  would  no  doubt  have  faded  away  of  its  own 
accord,  had  not  congress  in  1861  supplanted  it  with  a 
formal  government.  The  retiring  members  deserved 
well  of  their  country,  notwithstanding  their  equivocal 
position,  and  many  afterward  found  recognition  in 
popular  approval,  among  them  Governor  Steele,  in 
whom  enterprise,  honesty,  and  practical  ability  were 
admirably  combined.  He  was  a  good  specimen  of  a 
self-made  American.  Tall,  angular,  and  somewhat 
ungainly  in  appearance,  but  with  a  shrewdness  and 
rugged  energy  of  character.  Born  in  Ohio  in  1820, 
he  started  westward  in  his  twenty-sixth  year,  and 
began  the  study  of  law  with  an  eye  to  political  prefer- 
ment. This  he  achieved,  first  as  member  of  legisla- 
ture from  Omaha  in  1858-9.  Shortly  after  ward  he  re- 
moved to  Colorado,  as  president  of  the  Consolidated 
Ditch  company.  After  his  gubernatorial  experience 
he  engaged  in  prospecting,  and  was  one  of  the  party 
who  discovered  the  first  paying  silver  deposit,  known 
as  the  Belmont  and  Johnson,  which  was  afterward 
sold  for  $100,000. 

The  territorial  act  was  passed  on  the  28th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1861.  Jefferson,  Arcadia,  and  other  suggested 
appellations  were  replaced  by  Colorado,  after  the 
river  which  here  forms  so  conspicuous  a  feature.  The 
boundaries  were  parallels  37°  and  41°,  and  meridians 
25°  and  32°.  The  territorial  officers  commissioned  by 
the  president  were  William  Gil  pin,  governor  ;  L.  Led- 
yard  Weld,  secretary,  both  honored  by  having  counties 
named  after  them;  B.  F.  Hall,  chief  justice;  S.  N. 
Pettis  and  Col  Armor,  associate  justices;  C.  Towns- 
end,  marshal ;  J.  E.  Dalliba,  attorney -general ;  and 
F.  M.  Case,  surveyor-general 


WILLIAM  GILPIN.  421 

William  Gilpin  was  a  man  of  mark,  five  feet  eleven 
in  height,  slight  in  frame  and  nervous  in  temperament, 
with  a  fine  head  and  expressive  eyes.  With  a  mili- 
tary bearing,  a  graceful  mien,  and  courteous  manner, 
he  resembles  strongly  the  soldiers  and  statesmen  of 
continental  times,  though  with  a  nature  more  strongly 
imbued  with  enthusiasm.  Born  on  the  battle-ground 
of  Brandy  wine,  in  1822,  he  seemed  to  have  imbibed 
the  spirit  of  that  famous  field,  where  at  his  father's 
house  Lafayette  made  his  headquarters.  A  graduate 
of  West  Point,  he  fought  in  the  Seminole  war,  ac- 
companied Fremont's  expedition  to  Oregon  in  1843, 
joined  in  the  Mexican  war  as  major  of  the  first  regi- 
ment of  Missouri  cavalry,  and  a  few  years  later  led 
a  force  against  the  marauding  Indians  of  the  plains, 
for  the  benefit  also  of  the  state  which  he  afterward 
adopted. 

The  territory  had  been  created  on  the  eve  of  the 
civil  war,  and  the  cabinet  was  too  deeply  engrossed 
to  attend  to  minor  affairs.  Gilpin  was  left  without 
instructions,  and  told  verbally  to  follow  his  judgment; 
to  preserve  the  territory  for  the  union,  if  need  be  by 
forces  called  out  by  himself,  and  to  deport  himself  as 
a  loyal  soldier. 

The  country  lay  close  to  Texas  and  to  Kansas,  and 
so  large  a  proportion  of  southerners  had  crept  in  that 
the  population  was  estimated  to  be  about  equally  di- 
vided in  political  sympathies.  The  republicans  deemed 
it  prudent,  therefore,  to  be  cautious,  and  seek  to  win 
the  loyal  democrats  by  adopting  a  liberal  platform. 
The  press  on  both  sides  was  guarded.  This  concilia- 
tory policy  was  most  sensible ;  at  the  elections  the 
republicans  carried  their  candidate  for  congress, 
Hirarn  P.  Bennett,  by  a  majority  of  3,800  in  a  total 
vote  of  9,600.  Bennett  was  a  Missouri  lawyer,  lately 
from  the  Nebraska  legislature,  who  had  distinguished 
himself  at  Denver  for  his  zealous  prosecution  of  crimi- 
nals. After  serving  with  ability  in  congress  for  two 
terms,  he  resumed  his  law  practice,  acting  for  awhile 
as  postmaster. 


422  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

The  republicans  had  also  obtained  the  ascendancy 
in  the  legislature,  and  proceeded  to  court  the  favor  of 
the  people  by  adopting  desirable  measures,  seeking  at 
the  same  time  to  strengthen  their  side  by  increasing 
the  number  of  councilmen  from  nine  to  thirteen,  and 
of  assemblymen  from  thirteen  to  twenty-six.  They 
recognized  the  legality  of  the  miners'  courts,  provided 
for  the  transfer  of  cases  to  regular  tribunals,  and 
adopted  the  well  expounded  practice  code  of  Illinois. 
A  very  small  tax  was  imposed,  so  much  so  that  the 
appropriation  for  expenses  for  the  year  ending  June 
1862  amounted  to  only  $32,000. 

Seventeen  counties  were  created.  Costilla,  Cone- 
jos,  at  first  called  Guadalupe,  Huerfano,  Pueblo,  all 
names  politically  applied  in  deference  to  Mexican 
priority  of  occupation;  Fremont,  El  Paso,  Douglas, 
Arapahoe,  Weld,  named  after  the  territorial  secretary, 
with  the  seat  at  St  Vrain,  commemorative  of  the 
once  prominent  fur-trader ;  Larimer,  in  honor  of  G. 
W.  Larimer;  Boulder,  Jefferson,  in  preservation  of 
the  provisional  territorial  period ;  Clear  Creek,  Gilpin, 
after  the  governor ;  Park,  Lake,  and  Summit. 

The  capital  was  first  located  at  Colorado  City,  of 
central  El  Paso  county,  but  it  was  found  inconvenient 
and  remote  from  the  main  body  of  the  population  and 
business.  In  1862,  therefore,  a  transfer  was  made  to 
Golden  City,  but  six  years  later  Denver,  so  long  op- 
posed by  the  smaller  towns,  succeeded  in  regaining 
the  position  she  had  held  during  the  provisional 
period.  As  late  as  1872  the  south  almost  succeeded 
in  regaining  the  prize,  but  afterward  Denver's  rapid 
growth  left  it  in  undisputed  possession.  A  rival  of 
hers  for  metropolitan  honors  was  for  a  time  Canon 
City,  but  the  latter  was  left  isolated  by  the  construc- 
tion of  the  transcontinental  railway  toward  the  Den- 
ver side. 

This  city  secured  the  mint,  and  then  strove  to 
become  the  railway  centre  for  the  territory,  in  which 
she  succeeded,  although  not  without  strong  and  costly 


SLOUGH  AND  CHIVINGTON.  423 

efforts.  The  first  street  railway  was  completed  in 
1872.  Among  her  prominent  buildings  were  the  city 
hall,  costing  $190,000;  the  court-house,  $300,000;  the 
opera  house,  $700,000 ;  and  the  Union  railway  station, 
$450,000.  The  streets  were  adorned  with  300,000 
shade  trees,  and  numberless  irrigating  ditches,  cooling 
and  beautifying  her  area  of  13  square  miles.  The 
population  in  1890  was  estimated  at  125,000,  and 
sustained  in  proportion  a  very  large  number  of  jour- 
nals and  public  schools. 

The  governor,  on  his  side,  took  more  radical  steps 
to  assure  federal  ascendency,  being  threatened,  as  he 
was  informed,  by  secret  conspiracies  among  cliques  of 
confederates,  who  were  in  despair  at  the  success-  of 
the  republicans.  He  proceeded  quietly  to  raise  sev- 
eral infantry  companies,  and,  this  accomplished  with- 
out creating  comment,  made  a  call  for  other  companies 
to  complete  and  equip  a  regiment,  paying  Denver 
merchants  for  supplies  with  drafts  on  the  federal 
treasury.  For  this  he  had  no  authority,  save  the 
hasty  word  of  the  officials  at  AVashington.  Yet 
it  was  a  fortunate  provision,  for  it  was  now  discovered 
that  a  disloyal  faction  had  been  preparing  to  raid  the 
business  houses  of  Denver,  and  escape  with  the  booty 
to  Texas.  The  leader,  McKee,  a  Texan  ranger,  was 
arrested,  with  about  forty  of  his  followers.  The  re- 
mainder of  his  party,  encamped  on  Cherry  creek,  were 
pursued,  but  about  three  score  of  them  escaped,  after 
having  captured  a  government  train  near  Fort  Wise. 
The  prisoners  were  fed  and  guarded  for  a  long  time, 
at  great  inconvenience. 

The  local  danger  averted,  the  regiment  fell  into  dis- 
favor, partly  from  its  large  proportion  of  turbulent 
fellows,  and  from  the  standing  menace  it  presented  to 
democratic  partisans.  It  was  ordered  southward  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1861-2,  and  in  the  following  spring 
was  permitted  to  enter  active  service,  under  Colonel 
J.  S.  Slough,  to  check  the  advance  of  Texans  into 
New  Mexico.  Here  it  participated  in  several  impor- 


424  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

tant  engagements,  under  Major  J.  M.  Chivington, 
successor  to  Slough,  a  methodist  missionary  from 
Ohio,  who,  after  several  years  of  clerical  labors  in  the 
frontier  states,  yielded  to  an  innate  thirst  for  military 
achievement,  and  deserted  his  cloth  on  the  plea  of 
loyalty.  His  commanding  presence,  kind  manners, 
and  fearless  bravery  made  him  a  general  favorite. 
The  regiment  was  soon  afterward  converted  into  a 
cavalry  force,  and  sent  to  guard  its  own  territory. 

The  second  Colorado  regiment  was  raised  in  1862 
from  the  nucleus  of  two  companies  raised  the  preced- 
ing year  in  the  southern  counties.  After  participat- 
ing under  Colonel  J.  H.  Leavenworth  in  the  New 
Mexican  campaign  of  1862,  it  was  stationed  in  west- 
ern Kansas  to  protect  the  Santa  Fe  route.  It 
absorbed  the  Third  Colorado  volunteer  infantry,  or- 
ganized in  1862,  was  converted  into  the  Second  Col- 
orado volunteer  cavalry,  under  Colonel  Ford,  and  was 
ordered  to  Missouri  chiefly  to  fight  guerillas  and  to 
aid  in  breaking  up  Price's  army.  In  1865  it  was 
mustered  out. 

Other  forces  were  raised  in  the  mining  districts  to 
pursue  the  bands  which  occasionally,  under  the  mask 
of  sympathy  with  the  confederates,  undertook  to  com- 
mit depredations.  One  was  a  party  of  Mexicans,  ap- 
propriately called  the  bloody  Espinosas,  from  the 
numerous  murders  committed.  In  the  spring  of  1864 
J.  Reynolds,  a  pioneer  of  South  park,  turned  guerilla 
and  invaded  the  territory  with  a  handful  of  confeder- 
ate deserters,  capturing  a  supply  train  and  robbing 
mail  and  stage  coaches.  A  body  of  miners  from 
Summit  county  broke  up  the  band,  most  of  the  mem- 
bers being  shot  in  attempting  to  escape. 

The  fears  of  the  inhabitants  were  roused  less  by 
confederate  movements  than  by  the  attitude  of  the  In- 
dians. The  tribes  swarmed  here  in  all  directions,  and 
had  too  often  demonstrated  their  warlike  disposition 
by  attacks  on  caravans,  trappers  and  miners,  being 


INDIAN   AFFAIRS.  425 

treated  with  the  same  disregard  that  fell  to  the  lot  of 
the  Shoshones  and  other  abject  races.  Consideration 
for  the  California  migration  prompted  the  govern- 
ment in  1851  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Ogalalahs, 
Brulo  Sioux,  Arapahoes,  and  Cheyennes,  who  roamed 
along  the  east  slope  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  between 
the  Arkansas  and  the  Platte.  Although  numbering 
less  than  6,000,  one  third  classed  as  warriors,  they 
were  assigned  a  tract  of  120,000  square  miles,  to- 
gether with  liberal  annuities  as  a  bribe  to  abstain 
from  molesting  travellers. 

A  similar  treaty  was  arranged  in  1853  with  the 
Kiowas,  Apaches,  and  Comanches,  who  occupied  the 
region  south  of  the  Arkansas.  West  of  the  great 
range  lived  the  Utes,  branches  of  which  nation  ex- 
tended as  far  as  the  Sierra  Nevada.  In  Colorado 
they  formed  three  divisions,  estimated  at  10,000  souls, 
two  of  which,  in  the  southern  part,  were  yearly  pro- 
pitiated with  offerings  at  the  New  Mexico  agency. 
The  northern  division  was  still  wild  and  shy,  though 
warlike. 

Most  of  these  tribes  were  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Platte  agency  ;  but  it  was  not  easy  to  control 
twenty  thousand  savages,  at  enmity  with  each  other 
as  some  of  them  were,  and  with  only  distant  and 
small  bodies  of  troops  to  offer  a  feeble  menace  against 
their  outrages,  while  open  plains  and  sheltering  re- 
cesses in  the  ranges  gave  the  promise  of  impunity. 
The  occasional  chastisement  inflicted  by  the  soldiers 
was  speedily  forgotten  in  the  prospect  of  spoils  and 
of  warlike  achievements,  while  the  recollection  of  the 
chastisement  itself  served  as  an  incentive  to  retalia- 
tions on  defenceless  settlers  and  on  careless  travellers 
—retaliations  written  in  letters  of  blood,  in  return  for 
the  unrecorded  outrages  of  white  men  upon  Indians. 
Thus  treaties  were  broken  at  the  first  favorable  op- 
portunity, and  troops  were  kept  busy  in  usually  futile 
pursuit,  the  offending  tribes  being  rarely  punished 
with  more  than  an  occasional  abatement  from  their 


42G  GOVERNMENT-COLORADO. 

annuities,  The  influx  of  miners  after  1858  required  a 
new  arrangement  with  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes, 
by  which  another  slice  was  taken  from  their  territory. 
A  portion  of  the  tribe  absented  themselves  in  order 
to  have  a  pretext  for  declaring  the  treaty  void. 

The  preoccupation  of  the  government  by  the  civil 
war  was  seized  upon  by  different  tribes  for  casting  off 
the  irksome  restraint.  The  uprising  was  especially 
formidable  along  the  routes  through  Kansas,  and 
thither  were  ordered  in  1863  two  of  the  Colorado 
regiments,  just  returned  from  New  Mexico.  The 
third  remained  as  the  sole  guardians  of  the  Colorado. 
This  defenceless  condition  encouraged  the  Sioux  and 
Indians  of  the  plains  to  conspire  for  the  expul- 
sion of  the  white  population,  They  opened  hos- 
tilities in  1864  with  a  series  of  raids  on  outlying 
north-east  settlements,  and  the  cutting-ofF  of  supply 
trains  from  the  east.  Only  one  station  was  left 
standing  on  the  overland  route  for  a  distance  of  120 
miles.  Farms  were  deserted  throughout  entire  dis- 
tricts, and  the  people  fled  into  the  larger  towns  for 
protection.  A  severe  winter  and  floods  added  to  the 
misery.  The  governor  was  compelled  to  raise  a  regi- 
ment of  volunteers  for  a  hundred  days,  on  federal  ac- 
count, and  to  order  the  scantily  armed  militia  to 
organize  as  home  guards.  Outrages  and  raids  now 
alternated  with  pursuits  and  skirmishes,  and  occa- 
sional vain  parleying  resorted  to  by  certain  tribes  to 
gain  time  or  information,  or  for  extorting  gifts.  On 
one  occasion  Colonel  Chivington  attacked  a  peaceful 
camp  without  warning,  and  slaughtered  over  130 
persons,  an  act  for  which  the  government  offered 
indemnity,  although  not  until  other  bands  had  amply 
revenged  themselves.  The  act  was  both  strongly 
commended  and  condemned  by  different  parties  and 
from  different  standpoints.  The  conclusion  of  the 
civil  war  gave  the  government  ample  forces  with 
which  to  swoop  down  upon  the  tribes.  A  peace 
party  interposed,  and  awed  by  the  formidable  prepara- 


INDIAN  WARS.  427 

tions  against  them,  the  hostiles  agreed  to  terms.  The 
southern  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes,  the  Kiowas  and 
Comanches,  accepted  a  reservation  in  Indian  territory, 
and  have  there  remained,  in  consideration  of  an  an- 
nuity of  $112,000,  or  $40  per  capita,  for  forty  years. 
Apaches  yielded  to  similar  proposals.  North-eastern 
Colorado  suffered  only  one  more  uprising,  in  1866-8, 
when  the  first-named  tribes  joined  the  Sioux  in  a 
campaign,  which  was  concluded  two  years  afterward 
on  the  plains,  peace  being  then  practically  assured  by 
the  railway  and  telegraph  lines. 

The  Utes  had  at  first  held  aloof  from  molesting  the 
white  men  who  so  seversly  chastised  their  hereditary 
foes,  the  Cheyennes  and  associates.  Of  the  three 
Colorado  tribes  the  most  powerful  were  the  White 
River  Utes,  in  the  north-west,  under  the  chief 
Nevava.  South  of  them  were  the  Uncompahgre 
Utes,  led  by  the  chief  Ouray,  and  below  them  Igna- 
cia  held  sway  over  the  southern  Utes.  Cognate 
tribes  dwelt  in  New  Mexico  and  Utah. 

In  1863  these  tribes  showed  symptoms  of  the  then 
fermenting  Indian  war  eastward,  and  agents  were 
appointed  to  pacify  them.  In  1868  all  the  region 
west  of  meridian  107°  was  assigned  in  reservation, 
together  with  an  annuity  of  $60,000  in  food,  clothing, 
and  other  useful  articles,  until  the  tribes  should  be- 
come self-supporting.  The  mistake  Was  made  of  ap- 
pointing the  friendlier  Ouray  to  the  position  of  head 
chief,  to  the  subordination  of  other  chieftains,  who 
accordingly  were  induced  to  conspire.  In  1878  their 
jealousy  culminated  in  a  massacre  of  the  agency 
staff,  and  in  an  attack  upon  the  company  of  troops 
stationed  here  under  Major  Thornburg,  who  fell  with 
thirteen  of  his  men.  Reinforcements  came  to  stay 
further  atrocities.  The  Utes  were  obliged  to  sur- 
render their  vast  reservation  and  accept  land  in  sev- 
eralty,  the  southern  Utes  on  La  Plata  river  and  in  New 
Mexico,  the  Uncompahgres  on  Grand  river  near  the 
mouth  of  Gunnison?  and  the  White  River  Utes  on  the 


42S  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

Uintah  reservation  in  Utah.  The  severalty  bill 
granted  160  acres  of  farming  land  and  as  much  of 
pasture  to  each  head  of  a  family,  and  80  acres  to  each 
child,  An  annuity  and  means  for  support  were  to  be 
given  until  they  could  sustain  themselves,  $350,000 
being  appropriated  to  establish  and  improve  their 
farms  Notwithstanding  the  liberality  of  these  con- 
cessions they  have  lately  given  fresh  trouble. 

Governor  Gilpin's  hasty  enrollment  of  troops  for 
service  against  the  confederates  as  well  as  the  Indians 
was  duly  appreciated  when  the  emergency  became 
evident;  but  as  the  government  at  first  objected  to 
accept  the  heavy  drafts  and  debts  incurred  for  the 
pay,  armament,  and  supplies,  amounting  to  more  than 
$400,000,  financial  distress  ensued,  which  raised  an 
outcry  for  his  removal.  In  1862  accordingly  he  was 
replaced  by  John  Evans,  a  physician  of  Ohio  quaker 
descent,  who  had  acquired  a  prominent  position  at 
Chicago,  and  whose  name  was  bestowed  upon  the 
Illinois  university  town  in  recognition  of  his  aid. 

The  opportunity  presented  by  the  war  and  the  ex- 
ample of  Nevada  stimulated  the  old  state  party  to 
renewed  efforts  in  behalf  of  their  cause,  by  which 
several  ambitious  men  hoped  to  gain  place  and  power 
The  people  were  not  disposed,  however,  to  fill  a  treas- 
ury for  such  empty  purposes  and  rejected  the  project. 
Nevertheless,  a  convention  was  called  in  1865,  in 
which  only  eleven  counties  were  represented,  and  the 
submitted  constitution,  excluding  negroes  and  mulat- 
toes  from  citizenship,  was  adopted,  although  unsanc- 
tioned  by  law.  Gil  pin,  whose  policy  was  vindicated, 
was  chosen  governor,  and  Evans  and  J.  B.  ChafFee 
were  sent  as  senators  to  Washington,  to  urge  admis- 
sion as  a  state.  Congress  strangely  enough  con- 
sented ;  but  the  president  vetoed  the  bill,  and  again 
in  1867-8,  when  one  vote  alone  prevented  it  from  be- 
ing passed  over  the  veto.  Insufficient  population  and 
irregular  proceedings  were  the  causes  assigned  for  the 


EVANS,  CUMMINGS,  McCOOK,  ELBERT,  ROUTT.  429 

rejection,  although  some  alleged  that  it  was  due  to 
President  Johnson's  fear  of  adding  to  the  congres- 
sional strength  the  three  congressional  votes  of  a 
new  state  to  be  used  against  him  at  the  impeachment. 
We  may  be  sure  that  in  our  model  political  system 
the  act  is  first  for  the  individual,  and  after  that  for 
the  government.  The  people  had  just  cause  for  in- 
difference in  the  decadence  of  mining,  which  was 
then  in  the  experimental  chrysalis  state,  from  which 
the  silver  era  was  about  to  emerge. 

The  territorial  regime  continued  for  another  decade, 
and  the  president's  appointee  for  governor  in  1865, 
A.  Cummings,  founder  of  the  New  York  World,  found 
accordingly  a  wide  prejudice  awaiting  him,  which  he 
failed  to  overcome  for  want  of  the  tact  to  inspire  con- 
fidence, A  year  and  a  half  later  he  was  replaced  by 
A.  C-  Hunt,  an  active  railway  promoter,  who  seemed 
to  understand  the  requirements  of  the  country,  but 
was  given  little  time  to  satisfy  them,  for  in  1869  he 
was  supplanted  by  E.  M.  McCook,  a  man  of  ability, 
but  under  the  shadow  of  a  charge  of  peculation  as 
superintendent  of  Indian  affairs.  His  successor  in 
1873  was  S  H.  Elbert,  a  lawyer  from  Ohio,  who  had 
acted  as  secretary  under  Governor  Evans  and  lately 
sat  in  the  territorial  legislature.  He  manifested  great 
interest  in  irrigation,  and  was  preparing  to  rouse  the 
federal  government  to  action  in  the  matter,  when  the 
reappointment  of  McCook,  for  a  time  unconfirmed 
by  congress,  absorbed  attention  by  a  struggle  for  the 
gubernatorial  chair.  The  democrats  availed  them- 
selves of  the  split  in  republican  ranks  to  carry  the 
election  for  the  first  time. 

McCook's  second  term  barely  exceeded  a  year. 
The  administration  could  not  bear  the  rebuke  of  the 
democratic  victory,  and  hastened  to  counteract  it  by 
commissioning  John  L.  Routt,  born  in  Kentucky  in 
1826,  but  connected  in  his  career  with  Illinois,  a 
company  of  whose  volunteers  he  led  during  the  war. 
After  serving  as  marshal  for  the  southern  district  of 


430  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

Illinois  he  held  the  position  of  second  assistant  post- 
master-general from  1871  to  1875,  when  he  came  as 
governor  to  Colorado.  He  displayed  his  marked 
business  capacity  both  for  himself,  in  acquiring  a  for- 
tune by  mining  operations,  and  for  the  territory,  in  so 
prosperous  an  administration  of  public  affairs  as  to  be 
elected  state  governor  at  the  conclusion  of  his  terri- 
torial term.  The  general  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  was  gained  within  a  year,  for  he  had  come  to  the 
territory  a  perfect  stranger. 

The  agitation  for  state  honors  had  never  been 
relaxed  during  all  these  years.  The  principal 
champion  was  Jerome  B.  Chaffee,  the  leader  of 
the  republican  party  in  Colorado,  and  one  of  the 
most  influential  mine  owners  and  capitalists,  a  man 
of  liberal  ideas  and  generous  disposition.  He  was  a 
native  of  Niagara  county,  but  had  from  an  early  age 
carved  out  his  own  career  in  the  western  states  in 
trade  and  banking.  In  1860  he  left  Missouri  for 
Colorado,  and  erected  one  of  the  first  successful 
stamp-mills  near  Central  City.  Fortune  favored  him 
also  in  other  mining  operations,  and  in  1865  he  pur- 
chased Clark  and  Company's  bank  at  Denver,  and  es- 
tablished the  First  National  bank,  of  which  he  held 
the  presidency  for  fifteen  years.  His  political  career 
began  in  the  legislature  in  1861  Two  years  later  he 
was  chosen  speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives. 
His  election  as  senator  under  the  vetoed  state  con- 
stitution of  1866  brought  him  conspicuously  before 
the  people  as  an  able  leader,  and  he  was  sent  to  con- 
gress for  two  successive  terms,  from  1870  to  1874. 
Here  among  other  important  measures  he  obtained 
for  territories  a  representation  in  the  committee  on 
territories,  and  enlarged  powers  for  their  legislatures. 
Finally,  just  prior  to  being  unseated  by  a  democrat, 
owing  to  the  republican  split,  he  effected  the  passage 
of  the  enabling  act,  although  it  was  amended  so  as 
to  postpone  the  admission  of  Colorado  to  July,  1876, 
on  the  centennial  anniversary. 


CHAFFEE,  TELLER,  PITKIN.  431 

The  period  was  ripe  for  statehood.  The  constitu- 
tion had  by  this  time  been  improved  in  accord  with 
federal  amendments.  It  was  even  so  liberal  as  to 
offer  franchise  to  women,  subject,  however,  to  male 
assent  at  the  election;  which  was  withheld.  The 
democrats  also  gathered  for  the  fray,  and  helped  to 
swell  the  votes  at  the  election  to  30  000,  but  secured 
only  through  a  blunder  a  representative  to  congress, 
the  entire  republican  ticket  being  otherwise  elected 
and  sustained  by  a  majority  in  both  houses.  Chaffee 
was  rewarded  by  one  of  the  senatorships,  associated 
with  H.  M.  Teller,  a  lawyer  from  New  York,  and  in 
Colorado  since  1861,  major-general  of  the  militia  and 
president  for  several  years  of  the  Colorado  Central 
railway.  He  distinguished  himself  in  the  senate  as 
chairman  of  reform  committees,  and  during  Arthur's 
presidency  filled  a  position  in  the  cabinet. 

The  state  began  its  career  under  most  auspicious 
circumstances.  Silver  mining  was  in  the  midst  of  a 
flourishing  development,  which  was  infusing  fresh 
vigor  into  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  trade.  Real 
and  personal  property  stood  assessed  at  over  $44,000,- 
000,  exclusive  of  mining  values,  and  the  state  found 
itself  possessed  of  a  vast  dowry  in  public  lands. 

The  new  authorities  distinguished  themselves  by  a 
most  judicious  dispensation  of  their  trust.  Instead 
of  squandering  the  land  granted  for  education  and 
public  buildings  on  favorites,  as  had  been  so  often 
done  elsewhere,  they  strove  to  obtain  for  them  the 
largest  possible  amount.  Portions  were  rented  to 
the  highest  bidders  for  grazing  and  other  purposes ; 
others  were  sold  in  alternate  sections  for  farming,  on 
condition  that  purchasers  should  improve  the  adjoin- 
ing as  well  as  their  tracts  by  irrigation,  thus  raising 
the  price  of  the  reserved  land  as  high  as  $30  per 
acre,  and  adding  millions  to  their  value.  The  honor 
of  this  achievement  pertains  particularly  to  Governor 
Routt,  and  W,  G.  Clark,  the  secretary,  formerly  su- 


432  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

perintendent  of  schools,    who  constituted  the   board 
for  selecting  state  lands. 

The  legislature  on  its  side  fixed  the  limit  of  taxation 
for  all  purposes  at  the  low  rate  of  twenty -three  mills, 
and  kept  the  floating  debt  at  a  small  figure,  without 
any  funded  indebtedness,  the  constitution  prohibiting 
state,  counties,  or  cities  from  loaning  their  credit. 
Ten  years  later  the  surplus  in  the  treasury  amounted 
to  nearly  $400,000.  In  1883  the  amount  raised  by 
taxation  was  $295,000  on  an  assessed  valuation  of 
$111,000,000.  The  internal  revenue  exceeded  $170,- 
000.  The  administration  of  justice  was  of  a  high 
order,  to  which  contributed  not  a  little  the  nomina- 
tion of  candidates  for  the  supreme  bench  by  the  bar 
association. 

The  political  atmosphere  was  less  pure,  owing  to 
the  free  use  of  money,  which  manifested  itself  es- 
pecially during  the  contest  for  senatorial  positions. 
At  public  elections  the  venality  was  frequently  re- 
sented in  the  defeat  of  otherwise  most  deserving  can- 
didates. The  overweening  assumption  of  capital  was 
also  counteracted  by  labor  unions,  here  notably  among 
miners.  In  1881  the  miners  at  Leadville  organized  a 
wide- spread  strike,  attended  by  an  attitude  so  men- 
acing as  to  lead  to  the  proclaiming  of  martial  law. 
No  lives  were  lost,  but  the  city  suffered  the  loss  of 
half  a  summer's  labor  and  profit,  and  the  state  was 
taxed  $20,000  for  militia  expenses.  Shortly  after- 
ward a  violent  demonstration  was  made  at  Denver 
against  the  Chinese,  obliging  a  vigilance  committee 
to  be  convened  for  restoring  order. 

The  successor  of  Routt  was  F.  W.  Pitkin,  who  fol- 
lowed worthily  In  his  footsteps,  and  acquired  the 
general  reputation  of  a  Crichton,  together  with  the 
compliment  of  a  reelection.  He  came  of  the  prom- 
inent Pitkin  family  of  Manchester,  Connecticut. 
After  graduating  at  the  Wesleyan  university  he  en- 
tered in  1860  upon  a  lucrative  law  practice  in  Wis- 
consin, until  in  1874  failing  health  brought  him  for 


TABOR,  HILL,  GRANT,  EATON.  433 

relief  to  Colorado,  here  to  resume  his  profession.  H. 
A.  W.  Tabor,  the  millionaire,  became  the  lieutenant- 
governor  for  both  of  Pitkin's  terms,  owing  to  the 
murder  by  hostile  miners  of  G.  B.  Robinson,  who 
had  been  elected  for  the  second  period. 

In  1883  the  democrats  succeeded,  by  a  split  among 
the  republicans,  in  installing  their  first  governor, 
James  B.  Grant,  a  young  man  of  ample  means  and 
ability,  of  liberal  education  and  methodic,  well-bal- 
anced mind.  He  had  fought  with  the  confederates 
as  a  boy,  but  received  his  early  education  in  Iowa, 
which  was  later  supplemented  by  a  university'course. 
During  his  administration  figured,  as  joint  senator 
with  Teller,  the  able  Professor  N.  V.  Hill,  to  whom 
the  state  owed  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  experiments 
and  efforts  which  brought  about  the  revival  in  silver 
mining.  He  was  a  zealous  advocate  for  a  bi-metallic 
currency,  and  became  herein  the  peer  of  senators 
Stewart  and  Jones  of  Nevada.  This  alone  would 
have  procured  him  reelection  from  his  admiring  con- 
stituents, but  the  political  weapons  used  by  him 
against  republican  rivals  were  turned  against  himself, 
and  two  millionaires  pushed  themselves  successively 
into  the  senate  as  colleagues  of  Teller,  who  was 
reflected.  At  the  conclusion  of  Grant's  term  the 

tubernatorial  chair    was  filled  by    B.  H.    Eaton,    a 
irmer's  son  from  Ohio,  who,  after  engaging  in  teach- 
ing and  mining,  became  a  large  land-owner  and  stock- 
raiser  near  Greeley,  and  gained  general  commendation 
by  his  zeal  in  promoting  irrigation. 

The  campaign  of  1886  was  one  of  the  most  stub- 
bornly contested  in  the  history  of  the  centennial 
state,  with  three  tickets  in  the  field,  and  with  the  re- 
sult that,  except  for  the  governorship,  all  the  state 
offices  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  republicans.  For  gover- 
nor Alva  Adams,  a  hardware  merchant  of  Pueblo, 
was  the  chosen  candidate,  his  competitors  being  Wil- 
liam H.  Myers,  formerly  lieutenant-governor,  and  W. 
H.  Fishback  of  the  prohibitionists. 


434  GOVERNMENT— COLORADO. 

Notwithstanding  the  influence  of  money,  and  the 
party  strife  so  frequently  prevalent,  the  principal  offi- 
cials have  been  men  of  high  character  and  ability, 
and  their  administration  has  been  marked  by  wise  and 
economic  measures,  as  shown  by  the  absence  of  even 
a  floating  debt,  the  management  of  the  public  insti- 
tutions, arid  the  admirable  disposition  of  the  landed 
possessions  of  the  state.  Never  has  the  legislature 
of  Colorado  been  disgraced  by  such  unseemly  fracas 
as  those  which  only  too  often  have  been  witnessed  in 
the  senate  chambers  of  state  and  nation.  Never  has 
there  been  serious  waste  of  public  funds;  never  open 
disregard  of  constituted  authority.  In  this  and  other 
respects  her  public  men  have  set  an  example  which 
older  communities  would  do  well  to  lay  to  heart. 

The  explorations  of  the  early  Spaniards  in  Texas 
are  so  enshrouded  in  myth  as  to  render  it  impossible 
to  separate  fact  from  fiction ;  nor  was  serious  effort 
made  to  occupy  that  region  until  the  close  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  when  Sieur  de  Salle  made  his  at- 
tempt to  take  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  France. 
Though  his  colonization  scheme  proved  a  disastrous 
failure,  it  aroused  the  jealousy  of  Spaniards,  and  after 
a  preliminary  expedition  to  Espiritu  Santo  bay,  under 
Alonso  de  Leon,  governor  of  Coahuila,  in  1689  Vice- 
roy Galvez  ordered  him  to  establish  missionary  occu- 
pation in  the  following  year.  He  was  accompanied 
by  Padre  Damian  Masanet  and  three  Franciscan 
friars,  Miguel  Foncubicrta,  Francisco  Casanas  cle 
Jesus  Maria,  and  Antonio  Bordoy,  from  the  Santa 
Cruz  college  of  Queretaro,  and  the  mission  of  San 
Francisco  de  los  Tejas  was  founded  on  the  Trinity 
river.  Other  friars  afterward  joined  them,  but  the 
hostility  of  the  natives,  coupled  with  droughts  and 
pestilence,  caused  the  settlement  to  be  abandoned  in 
1694. 

Twenty  years  later  a  French  officer,  Louis  de  St 
Denis,  passed  through  Texas,  and  visited  the  presidio 
of  San  Juan  Bautista,  on  the  Rio  Grande,  where  he 


MARTIN  DE  ALARCON.  435 

was  favorably  received  by  the  captain,  Diego  Ramon. 
He  then  proceeded  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  through 
his  representations  as  to  the  fertility  and  resources  of 
the  country,  it  was  decided  to  reoccupy  it.  The 
command  of  the  expedition  was  given  to  Captain  Do- 
mingo Ramon,  who  took  with  him  five  Franciscans 
from  Queretaro,  under  Padre  Isidro  Felix  Espinosa, 
and  four  from  Zacatecas,  under  the  famous  Antonio 
Margil  de  Jesus.  The  result  was  the  founding  of  six 
missions  and  a  presidio  during  1716  and  1717  in  the 
region  between  the  Trinity  and  Red  rivers,  one  of 
which  was  that  of  Guadalupe,  the  origin  of  the  town 
of  Nacogdoches. 

In  February  1716,  Martin  de  Alarcon  was  made 
governor  of  Coahuila,  his  authority  extending  over 
Texas,  and  in  1718  he  founded  the  presidio  of  San 
Antonio  de  Bejar,  which  afterward  became  the  capital 
during  Spanish  rule. 

Spanish  domination  in  Texas  was  not  yet,  however, 
permanently  established.  In  1719  a  French  force, 
aided  by  Indian  allies,  invaded  the  country,  captured 
San  Miguel  de  Adaes,  and  compelled  the  abandonment 
of  the  settlements  by  both  soldiers  and  friars,  who 
retired  to  Bejar,  which  with  the  neighboring  mission 
was  for  two  years  the  sole  possession  of  the  Spaniards 
in  Texas.  The  marques  de  San  Miguel  de  Aguayo, 
who  succeeded  Alarcon,  regained  possession  of  the 
conquered  country  without  resistance  in  1721,  rees- 
tablished the  old  missions,  and  in  the  following  year 
founded  that  of  San  Javier  de  Najera,  under  Padre 
Jose  Gonzalez,  and  proceeding  to  the  bay  of  Agayo, 
erected  the  presidio  of  Bahia,  establishing  under  its 
protection  the  mission  of  Espiritu  Santo  de  Zuniga. 
His  work  accomplished,  the  governor  returned  to 
Coahuila,  leaving  Perez  de  Almazan  as  lieutenant- 
governor,  and  soon  after  resigned  his  commission  in 
his  favor. 

Almazan  ruled  in  Texas  for  four  years,  but  though 
a  competent  man,  his  term  of  office  was  not  marked 


436  GOVERNMENT-TEXAS. 

by  prosperity.  The  Apaches  became  very  trouble- 
some, but  his  hands  were  tied  by  orders  from  the 
viceroy  not  to  engage  in  active  warfare  against  them. 
The  Indians,  who  had  been  collected  around  the  bay 
mission,  abandoned,  it,  killing  the  captain  of  the  pre- 
sidio, and  the  sites  of  both  establishments  were 
changed  in  consequence.  In  the  northeast,  though 
the  friars  doubtless  did  their  duty  faithfully,  little 
progress  was  made.  During  the  rule  of  his  successor, 
Melchor  de  Mediavilla  y  Ascona,  a  feeble  effort  was 
made  to  colonize  the  province,  but  only  some  thirty 
families  were  introduced,  and  the  settlers  accomplished 
nothing  beyond  securing  a  bare  subsistence.  In  1729 
the  presidio  de  los  Tejas  was  suppressed,  arid  the  gar- 
risons of  the  other  three  presidios  in  the  northeast 
were  reduced  from  an  aggregate  of  240  to  140  men? 
whereupon  the  Queretaro  friars  removed  their  three 
missions,  in  1731,  to  sites  on  the  San  Antonio  river, 
near  the  presidio  of  Bejar,  the  Zacatecan  friars  con- 
tinuing their  labors  under  the  protection  of  the  Piiar 
presidio.  And  thus  decade  after  decade  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  passed.  New  missions  wore  estab- 
lished, only  to  be  in  turn  abandoned,  and  in  no  part 
of  Spanish  America  was  missionary  work  marked  by 
such  signal  failure.  The  Indians  could  not  be  induced 
to  live  as  neophytes  in  regular  communities,  while  the 
raids  and  depredations  of  the  savages  were  almost  in- 
cessant. The  settlers  who  arrived  in  the  country 
were  without  energy,  and  led  indolent  lives,  prefer- 
ring to  hunt  the  buffalo  and  wild  cattle  which  then 
abounded,  to  agricultural  pursuits,  which  were  con- 
ducted on  a  very  limited  scale.  The  condition  of 
Texas  at  the  close  of  the  century  was  one  of  stagna- 
tion, and  the  feeble  hold  which  the  Spaniards  main- 
tained over  the  neglected  province  served  to  attract 
the  attention  of  adventurers  from  the  United  States, 
and  to  encourage  numerous  hostile  invasions. 

At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  whole 
population   of  Texas,   exclusive  of  Indians,  did  not 


WILKINSON  AND   HERRERA.  437 

amount  to  seven  thousand  souls,  and  vast  regions 
were  uninhabited,  or  formed  only  hunting-grounds 
for  savages.  There  were  but  three  settlements  of 
any  importance,  San  Antonio  de  Bejar,  La  Bahia  del 
Espiritu  Santo — now  Goliad — and  Nacogdoches. 
Most  of  the  male  inhabitants  were  addicted  to  the 
chase,  to  the  neglect  of  industrial  pursuits,  until  An- 
tonio Cordero,  who  succeeded  to  the  governorship  in 
1806,  checked  in  a  measure  this  disposition  to  lead  a 
wandering  life,  and  enforced  some  attention  to  agri- 
culture. 

On  the  sale  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States 
in  1803,  Texas  became  a  bone  of  contention,  the  gov- 
ernment at  Washington  unjustly  claiming  the  Rio 
Grande  as  the  Mexican  boundary  line.  After  some 
war-like  demonstrations,  an  arrangement  was  made  on 
the  banks  of  the  Sabine  between  General  Wilkinson, 
commander  of  the  United  States  troops,  and  the 
Mexican  general,  Herrera,  that  the  territory  lying 
between  that  river  and  the  Arroyo  Hondo  should  be 
regarded  as  neutral  ground  till  the  boundary  question 
was  settled  by  the  governments.  This  dispute  was 
not  decided  till  February  1821,  when  the  Sabine  river 
was  accepted  as  the  boundary.  But  this  claim  of  the 
United  States  was  not  without  effect  on  the  destiny 
of  Texas.  Serious  attention  had  been  called  to  the 
country,  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  southern 
states  firmly  believed  that  Mexico  had  no  right  to 
Texas,  and  American  settlers  gradually  crept  into  the 
disputed  province,  while  the  neutral  ground  was  soon 
occupied  as  an  asylum  by  a  large  number  of  despera- 
does and  criminals,  who  formed  themselves  into  an 
organized  community  of  land  pirates.  For  years 
these  banditti  held  sway  over  the  region  and  preyed 
upon  the  traders  between  the  Texan  settlements  and 
Natchitoches.  Though  frequently  assailed  and  occa- 
sionally driven  off,  they  would  return  and  renew  their 
evil  practices,  until  finally  they  were  absorbed  by  ex- 


438  GOVERNMENT— TEXAS. 

peditions  under  various  leaders  who  invaded  Texas 
during  the  second  decade. 


o 


During  the  Mexican  war  of  independence  Texas 
became  the  field  of  many  a  sanguinary  engagement 
brought  about  by  the  invasions  just  mentioned.  In 
1812  Lieutenant  Augustus  Magee,  who  had  lately 
been  employed  in  breaking  up  the  bands  of  outlaws 
on  the  neutral  ground,  conceived  the  idea  of  wresting 
Texas  from  Spain  by  aid  of  the  banditti  to  whom  he 
had  just  been  opposed.  The  latter  eagerly  listened 
to  his  scheme,  and,  hastening  to  New  Orleans  for  vol- 
unteers, he  there  met  Bernardo  Gutierrez  de  Lara, 
who  had  been  sent  as  envoy  to  Washington  by  Hi- 
dalgo. The  two  readily  entered  into  an  arrangement 
to  unite  in  invading  Texas.  Having  made  their  prep- 
arations, Magee,  who  had  been  educated  at  West 
Point,  resigned  his  commission  in  June  1812,  Gutier- 
rez went  in  advance  and  took  possession  of  Nacogdo- 
ches  without  opposition,  while  Magee  was  constantly 
sending  him  reinforcements.  The  Americans  pres- 
ently advanced  upon  Trinidad,  which  was  evacuated 
on  their  approach.  Upon  Magee's  arrival  in  October, 
their  forces  numbered  about  eight  hundred  men. 

Governor  Manuel  Salcedo.  successor  to  Cordero  of 
Coahuila,  made  vigorous  preparations  to  repel  the 
intruders.  By  the  aid  of  Cordero  a  force  of  1,500 
men  was  soon  on  foot  and  took  up  a  position  near 
Bahfa,  against  which  place  the  Americans  marched, 
and  passing  Salcedo's  forces  by  night  effected  its 
capture.  The  governor  now  laid  siege  to  the  town, 
but  sustained  such  serious  losses  in  unsuccessful  as- 
saults that  he  abandoned  the  attempt  about  the  end 
of  February  1813.  Pursued  by  the  Americans,  he 
sustained  a  crushing  defeat  at  the  battle  of  Rosillo. 

O 

though  reinforcements  sent  by  Viceroy  Venegas  had 
raised  his  command  to  2,000  men,  with  six  pieces  of 
artillery.  His  loss  was  nearly  1,000  men  in  killed 
and  wounded.  Magee  had  died  during  the  siege  and 


JOSE   MANUEL  DE   HERRERA.  439 

the  command  devolved  upon  Colonel  Kemper,  though 
Gutierrez  had  been  nominally  recognized  as  com- 
mand er-in -chief,  in  order  that  the  Mexican  inhabi- 
tants might  suppose  the  enterprise  to  be  under  the 
direction  of  one  of  their  own  countrymen.  On  April 
1st  the  victors  took  quiet  possession  of  San  Antonio 
de  Bejar,  and  inaugurated  a  provisional  government 
under  republican  principles.  On  June  19th  another 
Spanish  force  of  1,500  strong,  under  Colonel  Ignacio 
Elisondo,  the  betrayer  of  Hidalgo,  was  signally 
routed  by  the  combined  troops  of  the  now  united 
Americans  and  Mexicans.  But  on  August  18th, 
Jose  Alvarez  de  Toledo,  who  had  succeeded  Gutier- 
rez, at  the  head  of  an  army  of  over  3,000  men,  850 
of  whom  were  Americans,  sustained  an  overwhelming 
defeat  at  the  hands  of  Colonel  Arredondo,  who  lured 
him  into  an  ambuscade.  In  this  bloody  engagement, 
called  the  battle  of  the  Medina,  nearly  all  the 
Americans  perished,  ninety-five  only  finding  their 
way  back  to  Natchitoches. 

After  this  death-blow  to  the  republican  cause  the 
condition  of  Texas  was  deplorable ;  the  American 
settlers  left  the  country  and  many  of  the  Mexicans 
sought  refuge  in  the  United  States.  But  none  the 
less  were  invasions  of  a  similar  character  made  from 
time  to  time  from  the  United  States.  In  September 
1816  Jose  Manuel  de  Herrera,  who  had  been  selected 
as  minister  to  the  United  States  by  Morelos,  arrived 
at  Galveston  island  with  Luis  de  Aury.  whom  he  ap- 
pointed commodore  of  the  republic  of  Mexico.  A 
government  was  formed,  Galveston  declared  a  port  of 
the  republic,  and  Aury  was  made  civil  and  military 
governor  of  Texas.  But  this  crude  effort  at  occupa- 
tion soon  collapsed,  and  in  the  beginning  of  August, 
Aury  sailed  for  the  Floridas.  Meantime  Jaen  La- 
fitte,  the  "pirate  of  the  gulf,"  had  established  him- 
self on  Galveston  island  during  Aury's  absence,  and 
soon  made  himself  an  island  king.  Imitating  Aury 
he  established  a  republican  government,  the  oath  of 


440  GOVERNMENT-TEXAS. 

fidelity  to  the  Mexican  republic  being  taken  by  the 
members.  Here  the  pirate  maintained  himself  for 
more  than  three  years  at  the  head  of  1,000  followers, 
sweeping  Spanish  commerce  from  the  waters  of  the 
gulf.  But  as  he  preyed  upon  American,  as  well  as 
Spanish  commerce,  Lieutenant  Kearney,  of  the  Enter- 
prise, was  sent  by  the  United  States  government  to 
break  up  the  freebooter's  establishment,  which  was 
effected  early  in  1821.  Lastly  an  expedition  against 
Texas  was  organized  at  Natchez,  by  James  Long,  in 
1819.  Entering  Nacogdoches  he  organized  a  govern- 
ment, and  occupied  several  places  in  ths  interior,  his 
forces  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  over  three  hun- 
dred men.  But  no  expedition  of  the  kind  met  with 
more  speedy  collapse.  Colonel  Ignacio  Perez,  with 
seven  hundred  men,  assailed  and  routed  his  detach- 
ments in  detail,  Long  himself  barely  escaping  capture, 
In  1821  he  made  a  second  attempt,  and  occupied 
Bahia  with  fifty  men.  Compelled,  however,  to  sur- 
render to  Perez,  he  was  sent  to  Mexico,  where  he 
was  set  at  liberty,  independence  having  then  been 
achieved.  In  1822  a  sentinel,  whom  he  struck  for 
refusing  him  admittance  into  the  barracks,  shot  him 
dead. 

Thus  every  expedition  organized  with  the  object  of 
seizing  Texas  by  force  of  arms  met  with  signal  defeat ; 
but  the  time  was  approaching  when  the  influx  of  an- 
other race  accomplished  her  separation  from  Mexico. 
In  1821  the  condition  of  the  province  was  lamenta- 
ble. Most  of  the  settlers  had  disappeared ;  farms 
were  destroyed  ;  cattle  driven  away  ;  and  vast  regions 
were  left  destitute  of  inhabitants.  The  populated 
districts  did  not  contain  4,000  white  persons,  while 
the  north-eastern  borders  became  an  asylum  for  crim- 
inals, and  the  haunts  of  smugglers  and  robbers. 

All  efforts  on  the  part  of  Spain  to  people  Texas  by 
colonization  had  been  unsuccessful  ;  yet  she  was  anx- 
ious that  an  industrious  and  numerous  population, 
whose  self-interests  would  attach  them  to  the  soil, 


STEPHEN  F.  AUSTIN.  441 

should  occupy  the  province,  hoping  thereby  to  es- 
tablish a  barrier  against  United  States  encroachments. 
Previous  to  1819  official  proclamations  were  published 
inviting  European  emigrants  to  settle  in  her  American 
possessions.  The  same  privilege  was  not  extended  to 
Anglo-Americans  who  were  rigidly  excluded  from 
obtaining  grants  of  land.  When,  however,  the  treaty 
of  1819  secured  her  right  to  Texas,  the  restriction 
was  removed.  The  first  American  to  apply  for  a 
grant  of  land  in  Texas  was  Moses  Austin,  a  native  of 
Durham,  Connecticut. 

This  enterprising  and  persevering  man  was  born 
about  the  year  1764,  and  after  having  engaged  in  a 
variety  of  enterprises  in  the  United  States,  was  finally 
almost  ruined  by  the  failure,  in  1818,  of  the  bank  of 
St  Louis.  Adversity,  however,  did  not  discourage 
him,  and  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  colonization  of 
Texas.  After  a  long  and  dangerous  journey  to  San 
Antonio  de  Bejar,  in  1820,  with  frequent  disappoint- 
ments and  discouraging  prospects,  he  eventually  suc- 
ceeded, through  the  interest  of  Felipe  Henrique  Neri, 
Baron  de  Bastrop,  in  obtaining  a  favorable  hearing 
for  his  colonization  scheme  from  Governor  Martinez. 
His  memorial  was  forwarded  to  Arredondo,  the 
comandante-general  of  the  eastern  internal  provinces. 
Austin  then  set  forth  on  his  return,  in  January  1821. 
His  journey  was  a  severe  one.  Swollen  rivers  and 
streams  had  to  be  crossed  by  swimming  or  rafting,  at 
imminent  risk  of  life,  and  exposure,  hunger,  and  fatigue 
broke  down  his  health.  Having  reached  his  home  in 
Missouri,  he  died  of  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  having 
a  few  days  before  received  information  that  his  memo- 
rial had  met  with  success,  permission  being  given  him 
to  introduce  three  hundred  families  into  Texas. 

On  his  death- bed  he  left  an  injunction  to  his  son, 
Stephen  F.  Austin,  to  carry  out  the  enterprise,  and  to 
no  one  more  worthy  could  he  have  bequeathed  such 
a  trust.  Stephen  was  born  November  3,  1793,  and 
his  career  proves  that  he  was  his  father's  counterpart 


442  GOVERNMENT— TEXAS. 

as  regards  the  qualities  of  determination  and  perse- 
verance. How  seldom  is  it  that  the  son  thus  supple- 
ments the  life  of  the  father  ?  He  fulfilled  the  conditions 
of  the  contract,  introducing  three  hundred  families 
within  the  time  prescribed.  Henceforward  his  ener- 
gies were  devoted  to  the  development  and  prosperity 
of  the  colony.  His  efforts  in  its  behalf  merit  the 
highest  praise.  During  the  changes  of  government 
which  took  place  from  the  date  of  the  grant  to  the 
installation  of  Iturbide  as  emperor  of  Mexico,  nothing 
but  difficulty  presented  itself.  But  Stephen  Austin 
was  not  the  man  to  be  deterred  by  obstacles.  When 
he  discovered  that,  under  the  change  of  rulers  the 
grant  extended  to  his  father  had  to  be  recognized, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  undertake  a  journey  of  great 
difficulty.  Disguised  in  ragged  clothes,  with  a  blanket 
to  cover  himself  when  no  house-roof  offered  him  shel- 
ter, he  travelled  more  than  twelve  hundred  miles  to 
the  city  of  Mexico,  along  roads  infested  by  banditti. 
After  long  delay  and  anxiety,  his  claim  was  confirmed 
in  April,  1823.  His  future  efforts  were  directed  in 
all  sincerity  to  promoting  the  prosperity  of  his  colony. 
Invested  with  extensive  and  discretionary  powers 
with  regard  to  its  government;  with  many  turbulent 
men  around  him ;  embarrassed  by  the  want  of  a  writ- 
ten code  of  laws;  surrounded  with  suspicious  and 
captious  settlers,  who  wished  merely  to  carry  out 
their  own  selfish  views,  it  may  be  imagined  that  Ste- 
phen Austin  found  his  position  no  sinecure.  Not- 
withstanding his  patience  and  forbearance,  his  pru- 
dence and  moderation,  dissensions  arose  among  the 
colonists,  and  many  of  them  turned  their  backs  upon 
him,  charging  him  even  with  taking  advantage  of 
their  needs. 

In  1824  the  province  of  Coahuila  and  Texas  were 
formed  into  one  state,  with  a  proviso  that  when  the 
latter  possessed  the  necessary  elements  to  form  a 
separate  state,  notice  should  be  given  to  the  general 


WHARTON   AND   ARCHER.  443 

congress  for  further  action  in  the  matter.  The  union 
was  never  satisfactory  to  the  former,  her  interests  be- 
ing generally  sacrificed  to  those  of  her  neighbor. 
After  the  success  of  Austin  in  establishing  a  colony, 
immigration  set  in  with  such  persistence  that  by  the 
end  of  1832  Texas  had  sufficient  population  to  entitle 
her  to  statehood ;  and  as  she  had  many  grievances,  a 
convention  was  held  in  the  following  year,  at  which  a 
memorial  to  the  supreme  government  was  drawn  up, 
setting  forth  her  complaints,  and  petitioning  for  sepa- 
ration. Stephen  F.  Austin,  William  H.  Wharton, 
and  J.  B.  Miller  were  appointed  commissioners  to 
proceed  to  the  city  of  Mexico  and  present  it,  though 
Austin  was  the  only  one  who  went  to  the  national 
capital.  There  he  met  with  long  delay  and  many 
evasions,  owing  to  political  confusion  which  prevailed. 
Having  partially  succeeded,  however,  in  his  mission, 
he  set  forth  on  his  return,  but  was  arrested  at  Saltillo, 
on  account  of  an  intercepted  letter  wherein  he  ad- 
vocated the  organization  of  a  government  independ- 
ent of  Coahuila.  After  a  long  imprisonment  he  was 
released  by  Santa  Anna,  and  returned  to  Texas  after 
an  absence  of  nearly  two  years  and  a  half,  in  Septem- 
ber 1835.  The  Texan  war  of  independence  breaking 
out  soon  afterward,  Austin  was  appointed,  against  his 
will,  commander  of  the  army ;  but  his  career  as  a 
military  leader  was  of  the  briefest.  Though  several 
engagements  were  fought  with  success,  diplomacy 
was  his  real  battlefield.  Courageous  himself,  he  did 
not  wish  to  lead  his  followers  to  certain  death,  and 
his  advance  against  San  Antonio  was  marked  by  ex- 
treme caution.  The  executive  council  recognized  his 
superior  political  abilities,  and  appointed  him  commis- 
sioner to  the  United  States,  with  the  object  of  repre- 
senting the  claims  of  Texas  and  appealing  for  aid. 
Here  Austin,  with  his  colleagues,  Wharton  and 
Archer,  met  with  great  success  in  winning  sympathy 
for  his  adopted  country,  and  during  his  absence  Texas 
gained  her  independence, 


444  GOVERNMENT-TEXAS. 

When  the  Mexican  provinces  declared  themselves 
possessed  of  sovereign  rights,  and  the  federal  system 
of  government  had  been  established  in  Mexico,  a 
general  colonization  law  was  enacted  which  authorized 
the  different  states  to  frame  similar  measures  for  the 
settlement  of  the  public  domain  within  their  respec- 
tive territories,  and  on  March  24,  1825,  the  legislature 
of  the  state  of  Coahuila  and  Texas  decreed  such  a 
law.  By  its  provisions  large  tracts  of  the  public  lands 
were  conferred  upon  empresarios,  or  contractors,  who 
must  settle  upon  their  grants  at  their  own  expense  a 
certain  number  of  emigrant  families.  This  method  of 
colonization  is  known  as  the  empresario  system. 
After  the  passage  of  this  law,  and  in  view  of  Aus- 
tin's success,  so  great  a  tide  of  immigration  set  in, 
under  the  auspices  of  these  contractors,  that  by  1830 
the  population,  exclusive  of  Indians,  amounted  to 
nearly  20,000,  and  the  resources  of  the  country  were 
developed  in  an  extraordinary  degree.  The  grants 
were  of  immense  extent,  and  according  to  Austin's 
map  of  1835,  included  almost  the  entire  state  of 
Texas.  The  immediate  followers  of  Austin  as  colo- 
nizers were  Robert  Leftwich,  Hayden  Edwards,  Green 
Dewitt  and  Martin  de  Leon,  all  of  whom  obtained 
their  grants  in  1 825.  Then  follow  Benjamin  R,.  Milam, 
James  Powers,  McMullen,  and  McGloin,  Joseph  Veh- 
lein  and  David  G.  Burnett  as  contractors  in  1826. 
In  the  following  year  John  Cameron  obtained  a  grant, 
and  Stephen  Austin  his  second  one.  Others  were 
conferred  later.  The  above  empresario  engaged  to 
introduce  families  in  numbers  ranging  from  100  to 

O         O 

800,  and  though,  with  the  exception  of  Austin,  they 
failed  to  fulfill  their  contracts  individually,  they  brought 
collectively  a  great  number  of  settlers  into  the  coun- 
try, while  numerous  immigrants,  having  no  connec- 
tion with  the  empresarios,  flocked  into  the  new  land 
of  promise. 

Foremost  among  these  was  Sam  Houston,  who 
arrived  at  Nacogdoches  in  December,  1832.  His  pre- 


SAM  HOUSTON.  445 

vious  career  had  been  a  checkerd  one.  Born  in  Rock- 
bridge  county,  Virginia,  in  1793,  his  widowed  mother 
removed  to  Tennessee  when  he  was  fourteen  years 
old.  Disliking  farm  work,  his  wayward  disposition 
caused  him  to  take  up  his  abode  among  the  Cherokees, 
with  whom  he  lived  till  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age, 
spending  his  time  in  hunting  and  reading.  Although 
but  little  educated,  we  next  hear  of  him  as  engaged 
in  school-teaching  to  pay  some  debts  which  he  had 
contracted.  In  1813  he  had  enlisted  as  a  soldier  dur- 
ing the  Creek  war,  and  greatly  distinguished  himself 
at  the  battle  of  the  Horse  Shoe  bend,  where  he  was 
severely  wounded.  His  bravery  won  for  him  the 
lasting  regard  of  General  Jackson.  A  few  years 
later  he  was  appointed  Indian  agent,  which  position 
he  soon  resigned  and  began  to  study  law.  During 
the  period  from  1819  to  1829  he  successively  held 
the  positions  of  district  attorney  for  Davidson  county, 
member  of  congress,  and  governor  of  Tennessee. 
While  a  member  of  congress  he  fought  a  duel  in 
Kentucky  which  caused  much  excitement.  In  Janu- 
ary of  the  last-named  year  Houston  married  a  Miss 
White,  an  event  which  changed  the  whole  tenor  of 
his  life.  In  the  following  April  the  public  was  as- 
tounded to  hear  that  he  had  resigned  his  position  and 
had  secretly  departed,  his  bride  having  returned  to 
her  father's  house.  Domestic  trouble  was  the  cause 
of  this  proceeding,  but  the  nature  of  it  has  ever  re- 
mained a  mystery.  Houston  then  rejoined  his  old 
friends  the  Cherokees. 

On  his  arrival  in  Texas  he  at  once  became  a  leader 
in  politics,  was  one  of  the  members  of  the  conven- 
tion assembled  at  San  Felipe,  April  1,  1833,  and 
chairman  of  the  committee  selected  to  frame  a  con- 
stitution. The  next  three  years  constitute  the  most 
important  period  in  the  history  of  Texas,  and  at  its 
termination  Houston  had  inscribed  his  name  in  the 
register  of  fame.  In  his  opinion  the  time  had  not 
yet  arrived  for  Texas  to  attempt  separation  from  Mex- 


446  GOVERNMENT— TEXAS. 

ico,  and  at  the  general  convention  which  met  at  San 
Felipe  November  3,  1835,  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
he  was  opposed  to  a  formal  declaration  of  independ- 
ence. The  majority  at  that  celebrated  meeting  was 
of  the  same  opinion,  and  a  declaration  was  drawn  up, 
in  which,  though  war  was  declared  against  Mexico,  it 
was  announced  that  Texas  would  continue  faithful  to 
the  Mexican  government  so  long  as  the  nation  was 
governed  by  the  constitution  of  1824.  A  provisional 
government  was  organized,  Henry  Smith  being  ap- 
pointed governor,  and  Houston  commander-in-chief  of 
the  army.  Dissensions  arose  between  the  governor 
and  his  council,  and  Houston's  position  becoming 
equivocal  he  was  granted  a  furlough  till  March  1, 
1836,  and  instructed  to  enter  into  a  treaty  with  the 
Indians,  a  commission  which  he  executed  with  suc- 
cess. On  March  1st,  a  "convention  of  all  the  people 
of  Texas,  through  their  delegates  elect,"  met  at  San 
Felipe,  at  which  a  declaration  of  independence  was 
unanimously  adopted,  among  the  names  of  the  sub- 
scribers being  that  of  Houston,  who  was  again  elected 
commander-in-chief. 

Events  were  now  hastening  to  a  climax.  In  Feb- 
ruary Santa  Anna  invaded  Texas  and  besieged  the 
Alamo.  On  the  news  reaching  headquarters,  the 
commander-in-chief,  appointing  Gonzalez  as  the  ren- 
dezvous, hastened  thither  in  person,  but  immediately 
received  intelligence  that  the  stronghold  had  fallen. 
As  the  enemy  numbered  thousands  where  he  had  only 
hundreds,  he  decided  to  retreat,  and  commenced  a 
masterly  strategic  movement.  Notwithstanding  the 
murmuring  and  insubordination  of  his  troops  at  this 
Fabian  policy,  he  persisted  with  unyielding  firmness, 
luring  the  foe  to  destruction.  On  April  21st,  the 
battle  of  San  Jacinto  was  fought,  the  Mexican  army 
destroyed,  and  Santa  Anna  taken  prisoner,  Houston 
being  severely  wounded  in  the  ankle.  This  victory 
gained  for  Texas  her  independence. 

Urged  by  his  friends,  Austin  on  his  return  became, 


HOUSTON   AND  AUSTIN.  447 

against  his  inclination,  a  candidate  for  the  presidency 
of  the  new  republic,  but  the  victory  over  Santa  Anna 
had  gained  for  Houston  a  military  renown  which 
secured  his  election,  and  Austin  was  appointed  secre- 
tary of  state.  His  eventful  life,  however,  was  brought 
suddenly  to  a  close.  Obliged  to  work  in  an  unfinished 
room  at  Columbia,  the  capital,  he  contracted  a  cold, 
terminating  in  pneumonia,  of  which  he  died,  December 
27,  1836. 

Stephen  Austin's  constancy,  equity,  and  fortitude, 
his  truthfulness  and  simplicity  of  character,  his  zeal 
and  devotion  in  all  matters  connected  with  the  inter- 
ests of  his  colony,  have  endeared  his  memory  to  the 
Texan  people,  who  owe  to  him  the  foundation  of  their 
state.  He  was  its  parent,  and  for  its  welfare  there 
was  no  peril  which  he  would  not  brave,  no  self-denial 
or  hardship  which  he  would  not  endure.  Somewhat 
irascible,  he  never  allowed  his  hasty  temper  to  inter- 
fere with  his  course  of  action,  which  was  guided  by 
intelligence  and  sagacity  of  a  superior  order.  His 
benevolence  arid  self-sacrifice  for  the  weal  of  others 
could  hardly  be  surpassed,  and  as  a  benefactor  he 
holds  a  position  in  the  first  rank  of  patriots  and 
philanthropists. 

At  the  election  in  September  Houston  had  been 
chosen  president  of  the  new  republic  by  a  large 
majority,  and  he  was  reflected  in  1841.  During  his 
second  administration  several  of  his  measures  met 
with  much  opposition  and  condemnation.  In  1846, 
Texas  having  been  admitted  into  the  Union,  he  was 
sent  to  the  United  States  senate,  in  which  he  repre- 
sented Texas  for  fourteen  years.  He  was  strictly 
conservative  and  attached  himself  to  the  old  demo- 
cratic party,  and  thus  his  evident  leaning  toward  the 
north  converted  many  of  his  southern  friends  into 
enemies.  When  the  know-nothing  party  appeared,  he 
affiliated  himself  with  it,  thereby  bringing  upon  him- 
self a  storm  of  abuse.  In  1857  Houston  announced 
himself  an  independent  candidate  for  governor,  but 


448  GOVERNMENT— TEXAS. 

was  defeated  by  H.  K.  Runnels,  the  democratic 
nominee.  He  was  more  successful  in  1859,  when,  as 
independent  democratic  candidate,  he  was  elected  by 
a  majority  over  the  latter  of  nearly  8,000  votes. 
Houston's  sentiments,  however,  were  not  in  harmony 
with  those  of  the  legislature.  It  was  a  time  of  great 
excitement ;  the  governor  adhered  to  union  principles, 
and  when  the  ordinance  of  secession  was  passed  by 
the  convention  in  1861,  he  refused  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  confederacy,  whereupon  he  was 
deposed  and  retired  to  private  life.  He  did  not;  how- 
ever, desert  his  adopted  state,  but  sad  in  spirit  watched 
the  current  of  events,  frequently  raising  his  voice 
against  military  despotism.  His  health  failed  him 
rapidly,  and  on  July  26,  1863,  he  died  at  Huntsville, 
Walker  county. 

Sam  Houston  was  a  man  of  commanding  presence 
and  striking  countenance,  a  genuine  index  of  his  soul. 
He  possessed  great  ability  both  as  a  soldier  and 
statesman.  Self-reliant,  steadfast,  and  unyielding, 
whether  in  the  field  or  senate,  in  private  life  he  was 
courteous,  kind,  and  generous.  Frequently,  however, 
he  punished  his  detractors  with  invective  that  was 
not  soon  forgotten,  and  occasionally  he  displayed  vin- 
dictiveness.  In  every  official  position  which  he  held 
he  was  scrupulously  honest,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  throughout  the  state  which  was  so  deeply  in- 
debted to  him,  few  poorer  men  could  be  found.  He 
married  again  a  few  years  after  settling  in  Texas,  and 
left  a  widow  and  seven  children,  the  eldest  of  whom 
had  not  attained  majority  at  his  death. 

When  the  civil  war  came  to  an  end,  and  Texas  was 
placed  under  military  rule,  she  proved  more  indepen- 
dent and  determined  than  most  of  the  southern  states, 
and  was  one  of  the  last  to  be  re-admitted  into  the 
union.  The  all-absorbing  question  was  whether  the 
freedmen  should  be  regarded  as  aliens  or  enjoy  the 
rights  of  citizenship  and  the  elective  franchise,  against 


J.  W.  THROCKMORTON.  449 

which  abomination  Texas  struggled  hard.  Andrew 
J.  Hamilton  was  appointed  provisional  governor  by 
President  Johnson,  and  held  office  till  August  13, 
1866,  when  J.  W.  Throckmorton,  who  had  been 
chosen  at  the  general  election,  was  duly  inaugurated. 
Throckmorton  arrived  in  Texas  in  1841,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  secession  convention,  being  one  of 
seven  who  cast  their  votes  against  disunion.  He  was 
true  to  Texas,  however,  and  when  the  die  was  cast, 
raised  a  company  and  fought  in  the  confederate  army. 
As  governor  he  protested  so  energetically  against 
military  rule,  and  the  reconstruction  system  generally 
as  carried  out  in  Texas,  that  on  July  30,  1867,  Gen- 
eral Sheridan  pronounced  him  "  an  impediment  to  the 
reconstruction"  of  the  state,  removed  him,  and  ap- 
pointed E.  M.  Pease  as  his  successor.  His  political 
disabilities  being  afterward  removed,  he  was  elected 
to  congress  in  1874,  and  reflected  in  1876. 

Texas  having  at  last   framed  a  constitution  in  ac- 

O 

cordance  with  the  amendments  to  that  of  the  United 
States,  was  readmitted  into  the  union  March  30, 
1870.  Thenceforth  her  statesmen  set  about  the  task 
of  raising  her  from  the  condition  into  which  she  had 
fallen.  The  first  governor  elected  under  the  new  con- 
stitution was  Edmund  J.  Davis.  Being  a  staunch 
republican  he  had  but  a  small  majority  of  votes. 
Arriving  in  Texas  in  1848,  he  held  several  public  offices 
before  the  civil  war  broke  out  ,  when  he  entered  the 
federal  service,  in  which  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  briga- 
dier-general. Supported  by  the  legislature,  in  which 
the  majority  was  largely  republican,  his  views  on  re- 
form were  accepted  in  all  important  points,  and  sev- 
eral measures  were  adopted  obnoxious  to  the 
democrats,  who  did  not  close  their  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  he,  as  well  as  the  members  of  that  body  owed 
their  election  to  the  pressure  of  the  reconstruction 
laws.  Party  spirit  was  violent,  and  when  at  the  ex- 
piration of  his  term  he  sought  to  dispute  the  consti- 
tutionality of  the  election  held  in  December  1873,  it 


C.  B.—  II.     29 


450  GOVERNMENT— TEXAS. 

was  only  by   his  vacating   the   executive  office  that 
bloodshed  was  avoided. 

His  successor  was  Richard  Coke,  whose  election  was 
more  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  majority.  Coke, 
whose  birth-place  was  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1850,  removing  to  Waco, 
Texas,  during  the  same  year.  After  serving  in  the 
confederate  army,  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  state 
supreme  court  in  1866,  but  was  removed  in  1867  by 
General  Sheridan,  as  an  "  impediment  to  recon- 
struction." 

The  democrats  were  not  in  full  power,  and  Coke 
recommended,  in  January  1875,  that  a  new  constitu- 
tion should  be  framed,  as  the  existing  one,  which 
necessity  had  forced  upon  the  people,  was  incongruous 
and  objectionable  in  many  of  its  provisions,  while  no 
reason  existed  for  submitting  to  it  longer.  The  peo- 
ple were  eager  to  cast  off  this  reminder  of  their  past 
humiliation,  and  a  new  constitution,  marked  by  some 
striking  changes,  was  ratified  by  popular  vote  Febru- 
ary 17,  1876.  A  general  election  was  held  the  same 
day,  Coke  being  reflected  governor.  Both  the  new 
constitution  and  his  reelection  were  carried  by  an  im- 
mense majority.  On  May  5th,  however,  he  was 
elected  to  the  United  States  senate,  and  soon  after- 
ward resigned  the  executive  office  in  favor  of  Lieu- 
tenant-governor Richard  B.  Hubbard,  a  graduate  of 
Harvard  law  school,  who  settled  in  Smith  county 
in  1852.  In  1856  Hubbard  was  appointed  United 
States  district  attorney  and  was  elected  to  the  legis- 
lature in  1858.  During  the  civil  war  he  commanded 
the  22d  regiment  Texas  infantry,  and  rose  to  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general. 

Hubbard  was  succeeded  by  Oran  M,  Roberts,  whose 
policy  savored  somewhat  of  centralism.  He  objected 
to  the  restriction  of  judicial  power,  and  was  in  favor 
of  increasing  that  of  the  executive.  He  even  advo- 
cated amendments  to  the  constitution,  but  on  this 
point  was  unsuccessful.  Roberts  was  a  South  Caro- 


BARNETT  GIBBS.  451 

linian  by  birth,  and  selecting  law  as  his  profession, 
commenced  practice  in  1838,  being  then  twenty-three 
years  of  age.  Having  settled  in  San  Augustine 
county  he  became  district  attorney  in  1844  and  dis- 
trict judge  in  1845.  In  1861  he  was  chosen  president 
of  the  secession  convention,  and,  acting  in  that 
capacity,  proclaimed  Texas  a  free  and  independent 
state.  "  He  served  for  a  time  in  the  confederate  army, 
but  was  presently  elected  chief-justice  of  the  state. 
Roberts  was  a  member  of  the  first  reconstruction  con- 
vention in  1866,  and  was  afterward  elected  to  the 
United  States  senate,  but  was  not  allowed  to  take 
his  seat.  In  1874  he  was  restored  to  his  position  as 
chief-justice,  and  was  reflected  two  years  later. 

Nothing  marks  progress  in  civilization  more  clearly 
than  diminution  of  crime,  and  of  this  Texas  affords  a 
striking  illustration.  Within  the  last  twenty-five 
years  no  state  in  the  union  can  present  so  dark  a 
record  of  outrages,  robberies,  and  murders  as  that 
which,  for  a  portion  of  this  period,  stigmatized  Texas 
as  a  land  of  lawlessness  and  violence.  At  present 
she  can  proudly  and  justly  boast  that  her  criminal 
calendar  will  bear  comparison  with  that  of  any  other 
state.  The  cause  of  this  change  is  to  be  found  in  the 
tide  of  immigration  which  set  in  from  Europe  after 
the  civil  war,  and  the  prompt  and  fearless  administra- 
tion of  justice  during  recent  years.  The  new  settlers, 
reared  under  the  uncompromising  sway  of  monarchi- 
cal governments,  in  countries  where  the  laws  were 
rigidly  enforced,  brought  with  them  a  love  of  order, 
which  was  not  without  its  effect  upon  the  community. 
Under  the  constitution  of  1876  a  stern  code  of  laws 
was  enacted,  and  with  the  moral  support  of  the  com- 
munity, the  judges,  no  longer  intimidated  as  hereto- 
fore, scrupulously  enforced  them. 

Previous  to  1883  the  penitentiary  system  was  faulty 
and  inefficient,  but  in  April  of  that  year  an  act  was 
passed  for  the  better  management  of  such  establish- 


452  GOVERNMENT— TEXAS. 

merits,  the  third  section  of  which  is  deserving-  of  the 

'  o 

highest  praise,  inasmuch  as  it  did  away  with  the  evil 
practice  of  leasing  the  penitentiaries  and  returned 
them  to  the  control  of  the  state.  This  section  was 
introduced  by  Barnett  Gibbs,  a  native  of  Missouri, 
who,  having  graduated  at  the  university  of  Virginia, 
also  took  a  degree  at  the  Lebanon  law  college. 
Settling  in  Dallas  county,  Texas,  he  was  elected  city 
attorney  in  1875,  and  was  twice  reflected.  In  1883 
he  was  chosen  senator  to  the  state  legislature,  and  in 
1884  lieutenant-governor,  being  then  in  his  thirty- 
fourth  year.  His  administration  was  no  less  credit- 
able to  himself  than  satisfactory  to  the  people  whom 
he  governed. 

In  March  1699,  twelve  years  after  the  death  of  La 
Salle,  the  explorer  of  the  Mississippi,  a  French  fleet 
anchored  at  the  Chandeleur  islands,  off  the  coast  of 
southeastern  Louisiana.  The  object  of  the  com- 
mander, Iberville,  was  to  found  a  French  settle- 
ment near  the  mouth  of  that  river,  which  he  explored 
as  far  as  its  junction  with  Red  river.  This  mighty 
stream,  with  its  gloomy  magnificence,  its  immense 
volume  of  water  and  its  reed-clad  banks,  offered  no 
inducement,  and  retracing  his  course,  he  selected  the 
bay  of  Biloxi  as  a  more  suitable  location  for  a  colony. 
The  Indians  in  the  neighborhood  were  friendly,  and 
near  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  on  a  spot  partially  forti- 
fied by  nature,  a  fort  was  constructed,  huts  were  built 
around  it,  and  the  settlers  began  to  clear  the  land. 
This  was  the  first  French  settlement  on  the  gulf  of 
Mexico.  Leaving  two  younger  brothers,  Sauvolle 
and  Bienville,  as  commander  and  lieutenant  of  the 
fort,  Iberville  set  sail  for  France.  The  three  brethren 
were  sons  of  a  French  Canadian,  and  are  prominent 
figures  in  the  history  of  Louisiana. 

It  was  a  lonely  and  wearisome  life  which  the  colo- 
nists led  at  Biloxi,  and  the  return  of  Iberville  in  De- 
cember was  greeted  with  joy.  He  brought  with  him 


CROZAT  AND  CADILLAC.  453 

the  news  that  the  king  had  appointed  Sauvolle  gov- 
ernor of  Louisiana,  Bienville  lieutenant-governor,  and 
Boisbriant,  a  cousin,  commander  of  the  fort.  Iberville 
then  erected  another  fort,  about  fifty  miles  further  up 
the  stream,  and  leaving  it  in  charge  of  Bienville  again 
returned  to  France. 

In  July  1701  Sauvolle  died,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  brother  Bienville,  who,  in  conformity  with  the 
king's  instructions,  removed  the  colony  to  the  site 
near  which  now  stands  the  city  of  Mobile.  For  two 
years  the  little  settlement  was  neglected  by  France, 
the  nation  being  then  at  war  with  Great  Britain,  and 
during  that  period  its  inhabitants  were  reduced  to  the 
extreme  of  misery  through  famine  and  disease.  Re- 
lief finally  arrived ;  Chateaugue,  also  a  brother  of  the 
governor's,  appeared  in  1704  with  more  emigrants 
from  France,  and  with  supplies  of  food  and  agricul- 
tural implements.  Other  vessels  arrived  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  bringing  young  women  who  were  willing 
to  become  settlers'  wives — a  thoughtful  provision  of 
the  king — priests  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  the 
soul,  sisters  of  charity  to  tend  the  sick,  and  soldiers 
to  protect  the  colony. 

The  settlement  would  now  have  been  fairly  on  the 
road  to  prosperity  but  for  internal  dissension.  La 
Salle,  the  intendant  commissary  of  the  crown,  opposed 
the  governor,  and  was  supported  by  the  curate  De  la 
Vente,  whose  pretensions  to  temporal  power  were 
presumptuous,  and  were  checked  by  Bienville.  In 
addition  to  this  evil  was  the  hostile  attitude  of  the 
surrounding  savages.  Bienville's  position  now  became 
critical.  The  death  of  his  brother,  Iberville,  from 
yellow  fever,  deprived  him  of  his  powerful  influence 
at  court,  and  La  Salle,  taking  advantage  of  it,  biased 
the  colonists  and  prejudiced  the  French  government 
against  him.  In  July  1707  he  was  removed  from 
office,  and  De  Muys  appointed  to  succeed  him. 

But  La  Salle's  intrigues  failed.  He  was  dismissed 
from  office,  and  De  Muys  dying  at  Habana  on  his 


454  GOVERNMENT— MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

way  to  the  colony,  Bienville  regained  his  position. 
In  spite  of  his  exertions,  however,  scarcity  of  food 
prevailed  for  several  years,  and  the  colony  dragged  on 
a  lingering  existence  until  1712,  when  the  king  granted 
to  Anthony  Crozat  the  exclusive  privilege  for  fifteen 
years  of  trading  in  Louisiana— at  that  time  an  im- 
mense region  with  undefined  boundaries. 

The  concessions  to  Crozat  were  such  as  to  make 
him  lord  of  Louisiana.  All  the  lands  which  he 
placed  under  cultivation  were  to  be  his  property  for- 
ever ;  the  monopoly  of  all  the  manufactures  which  he 
established  was  secured  to  him ;  he  had  the  privilege 
of  annually  importing  one  ship-load  of  negroes  from 
Africa;  and  the  exclusive  right  to  work  all  mines  of 
the  precious  metals  that  might  be  discovered  in  that 
region.  In  return  he  was  required  to  send  each  year 
two  ship-loads  of  colonists  to  Louisiana,  and  to  assume 
the  expenses  of  administration  after  nine  years,  in- 
cluding those  of  the  garrisons  of  forts.  French  laws 
arid  usages  were  to  prevail,  and  a  local  government 
council — called  the  superior  council — was  to  be  estab- 
lished. 

In  1713  Lamothe  Cadillac  arrived  as  governor, 
Bienville  being  retained  as  lieutenant-governor.  The 
former  made  himself  ridiculous;  his  administration 
was  a  failure;  and  in  1716  he  was  dismissed  from 
office  and  Bienville  reinstated,  though  in  the  follow- 
ing year  he  was  relieved  by  De  T  Epinay.  Mean- 
time all  Crozat's  efforts  to  carry  out  his  great  scheme 
of  peopling  Louisiana  and  reaping  a  harvest  of  wealth 
had  proved  abortive.  His  agents  discovered  no  mines  ; 
they  failed  to  establish  a  trade  with  the  Spanish 
provinces,  either  by  land  or  sea;  the  fur  traffic  with 
the  Indians  barely  paid  the  cost  of  maintaining  fac- 
tories among  them  ;  and  discord  reigned  in  the  colony. 
After  spending  several  millions,  in  August,  1717,  he 
surrendered  his  charter.  In  the  same  year  a  similar 
monopoly  was  granted  to  the  Western  Company,  or 
Company  of  the  Mississippi,  of  which  the  famous 


BIENVILLE  AND  VANDREUIL.  455 

John  Law,  of  evil  renown,  was  appointed  director- 
general. 

Under  the  management  of  the  company  the  colony 
made  some  progress,  but  the  means  resorted  to  in 
order  to  obtain  settlers  were«  most  iniquitous.  When 
emigration  ceased  to  be  voluntary  force  was  used. 
Vagrants,  beggars,  and  the  veriest  scum  of  the  coun- 
try were  kidnapped,  and  respectable  people,  whom 
enemies  wished  to  get  rid  of,  were  smuggled  away, 
and  shipped  in  company  with  this  rabble  to  the  pestif- 
erous coast  of  Louisiana. 

In  1718  Bienville  was  again  appointed  governor, 
and  in  that  year  founded  New  Orleans,  whither  the 
seat  of  government  was  removed  in  1723.  His  ad- 
ministration was  an  able  one,  though  marred  by  his 
troubles  with  Indians  and  the  machinations  of  his 
political  foes,  with  whom  he  was  unable  to  cope.  In 
1724  he  was  called  to  France  to  answer  charges 
brought  against  him  by  his  enemies,  one  of  which 
was  that  he  maltreated  the  Indians.  Before  leaving, 
however,  he  promulgated  the  so-called  Black  Code 
containing  laws  relating  to  slaves,  and  which  remained 
in  force  until  the  transfer  of  Louisiana  to  the  United 
States.  It  is  curious  to  notice  that  the  first  article 
in  this  code  decrees  the  expulsion  of  Jews  from  the 
colony.  In  this  year,  also,  the  king,  at  the  request 
of  the  superior  council  of  the  colony,  issued  an  edict 
declaring  that  the  voluntary  killing  or  maining  of  a 
horse  or  horned  animal,  by  any  one  but  the  owner, 
should  be  punishable  with  death  !  In  spite  of  all  his 
services  and  his  honorable  career  Bienville's  adversa- 
ries proved  too  strong  for  him,  and  he  was  removed 
from  office,  together  with  his  brother  Chateaugue, 
who  held  the  position  of  lieutenant-governor. 

Under  the  change  of  administration  the  colony 
languished,  and  indeed  went  from  bad  to  worse.  The 
Natchez  became  hostile,  owing  to  the  oppressive  pro- 
ceedings of  the  officer  in  command  at  the  French 
settlement  of  that  name.  On  November  29,  1729, 


456  GOVERNMENT-MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

the  male  inhabitants  of  this  settlement  to  the  number 
of  250  were  massacred,  while  about  300  women  and 
children  were  carried  into  captivity.  At  other  places 
massacres  also  occurred,  and  Frenchmen  were  mur- 
dered whenever  opportunity  was  presented.  Then 
followed  a  long,  bloody,  and  expensive  war,  and  in 
1731  the  Mississippi  Company,  no  longer  able  to  sup- 
port the  cost  of  maintaining  a  colony  from  which  no 
profit  was  derived,  surrendered  its  charter,  as  Crozat 
had  done.  The  company  had,  however,  done  much 
to  build  up  the  settlement,  the  population  of  which 
had  increased  from  500  to  5,000  white  persons,  with 
about  2,500  negroes.  In  1732  the  superior  council 
of  Louisiana  was  reorganized,  and  in  the  following 
year  Bienville  was  once  more  reinstated  as  governor, 
to  the  gratification  of  the  colonists,  who  regarded  him 
as  the  one  best  fitted  to  reconcile  their  differences. 

But  the  governor's  position  was  a  most  difficult  one. 
A  disastrous  war  broke  out  with  the  Chickasaws, 
against  whom  an  expedition,  undertaken  at  great  ex- 
pense, was  unsuccessful,  though  a  hollow  peace  was 
patched  up.  Bienville  began  to  lose  favor  with  the 
government,  and  in  1743  was  recalled,  being  relieved 
in  May  of  that  year  by  the  Marquis  de  Vandreuil. 
He  never  returned  to  Louisiana. 

De  Vandreuil's  administration  marked  an  epoch  in 
the  history  of  Louisiana  The  colony  was  fairly 
prosperous;  the  Indians  were  successfully  dealt  with; 
and  the  French  gained  the  ascendency  over  the  Eng- 
lish, whose  intrigues  directed  against  the  colony  from 
Carolina,  had  long  been  a  thorn  in  its  side.  In  1753 
De  Vandreuil  was  appointed  governor  of  Canada,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Kerlerec. 

Kerlerec  ruled  for  ten  years,  during  which  the 
colony  made  no  progress.  Troubles  with  Indians 
again  occurred;  the  English  almost  cut  off  communi- 
cation with  France;  and  the  annual  expense  to  the 
crown  in  supporting  the  settlement  was  enormous. 
The  French  government  began  to  regard  Louisiana 


SPANISH  RULE.  457 

as  a  useless  burden.  Crozat  and  the  Mississppi  Com- 
pany had  alike  failed  to  make  the  colony  remunera- 
tive after  the  expenditure  of  many  millions  of  dollars, 
and  no  better  result  attended  the  efforts  of  the  gov- 
ernment. It  would  be  better  to  be  rid  of  such  a 
domain,  and  in  February,  1763,  the  king  ceded  to 
Great  Britain  all  that  portion  of  Louisiana  lying  east 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  to  the  king  of  Spain  the  por- 
tion on  the  west  side  of  that  river.  In  June,  1763, 
Kerleric  was  relieved  by  D'Abbadie,  and  on  his  re- 
turn to  France  was  confined  in  the  bastile,  being 
accused  of  mal-adrninistration. 

The  English  lost  no  time  in  taking  possession  of 
the  territory  thus  acquired.  In  October  Mobile  was 
occupied,  in  the  name  of  his  sovereign,  by  George 
Farmer,  who  at  once  began  to  display  the  exacting 
and  domineering  disposition  characteristic  of  his 
nationality.  He  issued  a  decree  requiring  the  French 
inhabitants  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  within  three 
months,  if  they  wished  to  be  protected  in  their  rights 
and  property ;  whereas  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
they  were  allowed  eighteen  months  in  which  to  emi- 
grate if  they  chose  to  do  so.  Moreover,  they  were 
prohibited  from  disposing  of  their  lands  until  their  titles 
were  verified  and  approved  by  the  commanding  offi- 
cer. In  June  1764  the  Illinois  district  was  abandoned 
by  the  French,  and  Baton  Rouge,  Natchez,  and  other 
places  being  now  occupied  by  the  English,  vessels  of 
that  nation  plied  up  and  down  the  Mississippi,  and  an 
extensive  contraband  trade  was  established  with  New 
Orleans.  Slavers  also  disposed  of  their  human  car- 
goes at  all  available  points.  Meanwhile  the  natives 
displayed  much  animosity  toward  the  English,  and 
several  of  the  smaller  tribes  migrated  across  the  river 
where  lands  were  assigned  to  them. 

Unlike  the  English  sovereign  the  king  of  Spain 
was  in  no  haste  to  take  possession  of  the  portion  of 
Louisiana  that  fell  to  his  share;  nor  was  it  until 
March,  1766,  that  a  Spanish  governor,  in  the  person 


458  GOVERNMENT— MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

of  Antonio  de  Ulloa,  arrived  at  New  Orleans.  He 
was  accompanied  by  Juan  Joseph  de  Loyola,  as  in- 
tendant  and  commissary  of  war ;  Estevan  de  Gayarre, 
comptroller,  and  Martin  Navarro,  treasurer.  Ulloa 
seems  to  have  acted  in  a  somewhat  peculiar  fashion. 
He  refused  to  present  his  credentials  to  the  superior 
council,  which  he  treated  with  brusqueness  and  con- 
tempt. He  delayed  taking  possession  of  the  country 
in  the  name  of  his  king ;  and  entered  into  a  com- 
promise with  Governor  Aury,  who  succeeded  D'Ab- 
badie,  with  regard  to  the  government,  whereby  the 
former  retained  his  position,  though  subject  to  Ulloa's 
directions. 

The  feelings  of  the  colonists  had  been  deeply  hurt 
by  the  partition  of  Louisiana  and  its  cessions  to  for- 
eign powers,  and  Ulloa  therefore  met  with  a  cool  re- 
ception. The  inhabitants  of  New  Orleans  could  not 
bring  themselves  to  believe  that  the  transfer  to  Spain 
was  a  positive  and  permanent  fact,  and  the  presence 
of  a  Spanish  ruler  among  them  was  an  offence. 
Every  obstacle  was  thrown  in  his  way;  the  French 
troops  refused  to  enter  the  service  of  Spain  ;  the 
merchant  class  made  no  attempt  to  hide  their  discon- 
tent; and  a  rebellious  spirit  everywhere  prevailed. 
By  the  close  of  1767  the  inhabitants  openly  expressed 
their  aversion  to  Spanish  domination,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  a  conspiracy  was  formed,  with  some  of 
the  most  influential  men  as  leaders,  to  drive  the  Span- 
iards out  of  Louisiana. 

On  the  morning  of  October,  28th,  the  insurrection 
broke  out.  The  streets  of  New  Orleans  were  thronged 
with  people  armed  with  all  sorts  of  weapons ;  Ulloa, 
with  the  assistance  of  Aubry,  escaped  to  a  Spanish 
frigate  on  the  river;  and  on  the  following  day  a  de- 
cree of  the  superior  council  was  passed  declaring  that 
Ulloa  had  violated  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  col- 
ony, and  allowing  him  three  days  in  which  to  leave 
it.  There  was  no  alternative,  and  the  governor  with- 
drew without  even  attempting  to  assert  his  authority. 


SALE  TO  THE  UNITED   STATES.  459 

But  retribution  was  not  long  delayed.  General 
Alexandro  O'Reilly  was  commissioned  by  the  Spanish 
government  to  proceed  with  a  sufficient  force  and 
take  possession  of  Louisiana  in  the  name  of  the  king 
of  Spain,  and  on  August  17,  1769,  he  appeared  off 
New  Orleans  with  a  fleet  of  twenty-four  vessels.  On 
the  day  following  he  landed  an  army  of  2,600  men 
composed  of  the  choicest  troops  of  Spain.  Resistance 
was  not  to  be  thought  of;  the  ceremony  of  taking 
possession  was  performed  with  due  solemnity,  and  the 
flag  of  Spain  was  hoisted  in  the  place  of  that  of 
France. 

A  few  days  later  twelve  of  the  chief  conspirators 
were  arrested  and  tried,  five  of  whom  suffered  capital 
punishment ;  one  died  in  prison  ;  and  the  remaining 
six  were  condemned  to  terms  of  imprisonment  vary- 
ing from  a  life  term  to  a  period  of  six  years. 

O'Reilly  now  proceeded  to  reform  the  government. 
He  declared  that  the  inhabitants  had  fortified  the 
right  that  had  been  granted  to  them  in  the  cession 
act,  and  that  the  insurrection  compelled  his  Majesty 
to  apply  to  the  colony  the  Spanish  form  of  govern- 
ment. The  superior  council  was  accordingly  abol- 
ished and  a  cabildo  substituted  in  its  place.  This 
judicial  body  consisted  of  six  perpetual  regidores,  two 
ordinary  alcaldes,  an  attorney-general,  and  a  clerk, 
with  the  governor  as  president.  O'Reilly  also  issued 
a  set  of  instructions  to  functionaries  and  to  the  public, 
which  in  reality  constituted  a  civil  and  criminal  code. 
Having  completed  his  mission  he  delivered  up  the 
government  to  Louis  de  Urizaga,  and  withdrew  his 
forces  from  the  coast. 

Unzaga's  administration  was  mild  and  conciliatory, 
and  soon  the  colonists  became  reconciled  to  the  new 
form  of  government.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be 
admitted  that  contraband  trade  was  carried  on  to  an 
enormous  extent  with  the  English.  On  February 
1,  1777  he  was  succeeded  by  Bernardo  de  Galvez, 
and  from  that  year  down  to  1803  five  more  Spanish 


460  GOVERNMENT— MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

governors  ruled  in  Louisiana.  By  a  treaty  concluded 
at  St  Ildephonso  October  1,  1800,  the  king  of  Spain 
retroceded  Louisiana  to  France,  in  return  for  which 
the  duke  of  Parma  was  to  be  put  in  possession  of 
Tuscany  by  Napoleon.  This  treaty  was  kept  secret, 
as  it  was  feared  that  England,  then  at  war  with 
France,  might  take  possession  of  the  country.  Mean- 
time the  United  States  had  gained  their  indepen- 
dence, and  though  by  the  treaty  of  1783  Great 
Britain  no  longer  retained  any  portion  of  Louisiana, 
the  Americans  began  to  be  regarded  as  dangerous 
neighbors.  The  Spanish  governor  remained  in  office 
until  1803,  when  Napoleon,  contrary  to  the  terms  of 
the  treaty  with  Spain,  sold  the  territory  to  the 
United  States.  Thus  the  province,  which  had  cost 
both  France  and  Spain  enormous  sums,  without  mak- 
ing any  adequate  return,  began  a  new  career  under  a 
more  modern  and  enlightened  government.  The 
American  flag  was  hoisted  in  New  Orleans  on  De- 
cember 20,  1803,  W.  C.  C.  Claiborne,  governor  of 
Mississippi,  and  General  Wilkinson  being  the  United 
States  commissioners,  and  the  former  taking  charge 
of  the  provisional  government. 

By  act  of  March  26,  1804,  the  newly  acquired  ter- 
ritory was  divided  into  two  sections,  one  including 
the  present  state  and  a  portion  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  other  embracing  all  the  region  north  and  west  of 
it.  The  former  was  admitted  as  a  state  in  April  1812, 
with  the  name  of  Lousiana,  which  was  substituted  for 
that  of  Orleans,  and  in  June  following  the  name  of 
the  latter,  which  had  also  been  Louisiana,  was  changed 
to  that  of  Missouri. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi  the  territory 
acquired  by  the  treaty  of  1783  had  already  been  par- 
celed into  large  divisions,  which  in  turn  were  sub- 
jected to  subdivision.  In  1798  the  territory  of 
Missisippi  was  formed,  and  included  Alabama  until 
1817,  when  the  latter  was  separated  from  it,  and 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATES.  461 

Mississippi  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  state.  Ten- 
nessee, which  was  settled  by  Anglo-Americans  in 
1756,  remained  a  part  of  North  Carolina  until  1794, 
when  it  was  organized  into  a  territory,  being  ad- 
mitted a  state  two  years  later.  Similarly  Kentucky 
was  a  county  and  judicial  district  of  Virginia  until 
1790,  when  it  became  in  turn  a  separate  territory, 
and  in  1792  a  state. 

The  seoreo-ation   of  these  two   states   marks  a  di- 

O          O 

vergence  in  political  opinion  which  is  well  exhibited 
in  the  attitude  assumed  during  the  civil  war.  In  east 
Tennessee  the  people  were  strongly  opposed  to  sepa- 
ration from  the  union,  while  in  west  Tennessee  seces- 
sion was  the  dominant  sentiment.  The  popular  vote, 
however,  decided  in  favor  of  the  confederacy,  and 
the  state  suffered  in  conseqence  ;  nevertheless,  on  ac- 
count of  its  loyal  element,  it  was  one  of  the  first  to  be 
readmitted  into  the  union.  Kentucky's  action  was 
still  more  marked.  At  an  early  date  the  people  had 
shown  an  inclination  to  obtain  an  independent  nation- 
ality, and  when  the  civil  war  broke  out  the  same 
spirit  of  independence  was  exhibited  by  the  Ken- 
tuckians  assuming  a  position  of  neutrality.  Being 
equally  opposed  to  the  revolution  in  the  south  and  to 
coercion  by  the  north,  they  determined  to  resist  in- 
vasion of  the  state  by  the  forces  of  either  side,  and 
the  requisition  for  volunteers,  made  by  the  secretary 
of  war,  was  met  with  a  refusal  to  furnish  troops.  At 
the  elections,  however,  of  May  and  June,  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  people  proved  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
union,  and  a  large  body  of  volunteers  was  raised. 

Proceeding  northward,  we  come  to  the  Illinois  re- 
gion, which,  in  July  1787,  was  constituted  the  north- 
west territory  under  a  single  government,  and  included 
all  the  country  lying  north  of  the  Ohio  river.  The 
early  history  of  this  portion  of  the  United  States  is 
little  more  than  a  narrative  of  incessant  hostilities 
with  the  Indians,  which  greatly  impeded  the  settle- 


462  GOVERNMENT— MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

ment  of  the  country.  But  westward  migration  could 
not  be  resisted,  and  in  1800  Ohio  was  appointed  a 
separate  territory,  the  remaining  portion  of  the  orig- 
inal northwest  territory  being  included  in  the  new 
government  of  Indiana.  Then  followed,  as  a  natural 
consequence  of  the  pressure,  further  subdivisions,  and 
in  1805  the  territory  of  Michigan  was  organized,  and 
those  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  in  1809.  the  latter  com- 
prising what  are  now  the  states  of  Illinois  and  Wis- 
consin and  a  part  of  Minnesota.  The  final  division 
was  made  in  1836,  when  Wisconsin,  meaning  ''wild- 
rushing  river"  in  the  Indian  language,  was  segregated 
from  Michigan,  to  which  it  had  been  annexed  partly 
in  1818  and  partly  in  1834.  All  these  territories  in 
time  reached  the  dignity  of  statehood  as  their  popu- 
lation increased. 

Of  a  somewhat  later  organization  are  the  states 
lying  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Missouri  was  admitted 
with  its  present  area  in  1821.  The  efforts  made  to 
prevent  the  extension  of  slavery  into  new  states  led 
to  the  passage  of  the  famous  compromise  bill  of  1820, 
by  which  it  was  determined  that  Missouri  should  enter 
the  union  as  a  slave-holding  state,  but  that  in  future 
slavery  should  not  be  established  in  states  formed  out 
of  territory  lying  north  of  latitude  36°  30'.  Arkansas 
had  already  in  1819  been  separated  from  Missouri, 
and  acquired  her  position  as  a  state  in  1836.  Being 
in  the  slave-soil  portion  of  the  United  States  she 
naturally  fought  on  the  side  of  the  confederacy. 

Next  in  priority  to  enter  the  union  was  Iowa,  "  the 
beautiful  land."  This  portion  of  the  country  had  been 
successively  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin  until  June  1838,  when  it  was  made  a  sep- 
arate territory.  It  originally  comprised  all  the 
country  lying  north  of  the  present  state  between  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers.  In  1864  it  was  ad- 
mitted to  statehood,  and  three  years  afterward  the 
territory  of  Minnesota  was  detached  from  it.  In  this 
latter  region  an  important  trade  with  Indians  was 


ANGLO-SAXONS  AS  COLONIZERS.  463 

formerly  carried  on,  and  in  1816  foreigners  were  ex- 
cluded from  it,  Fort  Snelling  being  established  a  few 
years  later  to  protect  the  traffic. 

No  state  in  the  Missouri  basin  has  encountered 
more  difficulties  in  the  settlement  of  the  slavery  ques- 
tion than  Kansas.  In  May  1854  congress  passed  an 
act  organizing  the  territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska; 
but  in  that  act  the  Missouri  compromise  of  1820  was 
declared  inoperative  and  void,  the  question  of  slavery 
being  thus  left  to  the  decision  of  the  people.  A  con- 
siderable immigration  set  in  from  free  states  in  the 
north,  while  at  the  same  time  settlers  from  Missouri 
were  passing  into  Kansas,  bringing  their  slaves  with 
them.  Thus  free-state  and  pro-slavery  parties  were 
formed,  the  contest  between  which  reached  such  a 
degree  of  violence  that  the  factions  took  up  arms 
against  each  other.  In  Missouri  a  secret  society  was 
formed  with  the  object  of  securing  Kansas  as  a  slave 
state,  and  voters  were  sent  to  the  polls,  which,  more- 
over, were  taken  possession  of  by  armed  bands. 
During  1856-7  anarchy  prevailed  ;  men  were  slain, 
houses  were  burned ;  and  a  civil  war  raged  through- 
out the  country  ;  nor  was  it  until  the  end  of  1857 
that  Governor  Geary  reported  to  the  president  that 
tranquility  and  order  were  reestablished.  Yet,  owing 
to  intruders  from  Missouri,  the  free-state  men  had  no 
opportunity  of  letting  their  weight  be  felt  until  Oc- 
tober 1859,  when  the  popular  vote  showed  that  slavery 
was  prohibited  by  a  majority  of  nearly  two  to  one. 
Kansas  was  admitted  into  the  union  in  1861,  and 
during  the  early  part  of  the  war  suffered  considerably 
from  confederate  guerillas. 

Though  Nebraska  escaped  the  civil  dissensions 
which  racked  her  neighbor  on  the  south,  her  growth 
was  slow,  owing  to  the  hostilities  of  the  Indians.  An 
enabling  act  providing  for  the  admission  of  the  terri- 
tory into  the  union  was  passed  in  April  1864,  but  the 
territorial  legislature  did  not  frame  a  constitution 
until  early  in  1866.  The  bill  passed  by  congress  for 


464  GOVERNMENT— MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 

the  admission  of  Nebraska  did  not,  however,  receive 
the  signature  of  the  president,  but  in  the  following 
ing  year  a  second  bill,  which  he  again  vetoed,  was 
passed  by  congress  over  his  veto.  The  fundamental 
condition  on  which  the  act  enabled  Nebraska  to  enter 
the  union  as  a  state  was,  that  there  should  be  no  denial 
of  the  elective  franchise  to  colored  people.  Dakota, 
which  originally  formed  a  portion  of  Nebraska,  was 
organized  as  a  territory  in  1861,  and  comprised  the 
portions  of  Montana  and  Wyoming  lying  east  of  the 
Rocky  mountains,  which  were  afterward  segregated 
for  the  formation  of  those  territories. 

From  the  above  brief  outline  of  the  development 
of  the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  Missouri  basin,  and 
their  division  into  populous  and  thriving  states,  the 
reader  will  mark  the  contrast  presented  by  the  failure 
of  France  and  Spain  to  colonize  these  regions,  and  the 
success  of  the  more  practical  efforts  of  the  United 
States.  Step  by  step  the  Anglo-American  pressed 
forward,  overcoming  alike  physical  difficulties  and 
the  opposition  of  the  natives.  Prosperous  common- 
wealths were  organized  one  after  another,  as  the  con- 
quest over  nature  and  the  subjugation  of  the  savage 
were  effected,  until  a  population  of  more  millions  peo- 
pled the  land  than  there  were  thousands  at  the  time 
of  its  acquisition.  Small  trading-posts  have  grown 
into  large  towns,  and  insignificant  towns  have  become 
great  cities,  peopled  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  busy 
with  all  the  varied  industries  of  life. 

Before  sketching  the  political  affairs  of  Oregon, 
whither  was  directed  the  first  overland  migration 
from  the  eastern  states,  I  will  give  the  biography 
of  one  of  her  earliest  and  most  respected  judges,  one 
to  whom  she  is  also  largely  indebted  for  her  excellent 
system  of  jurisprudence. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

LIFE  OF   MATTHEW  PAUL  DEADY. 

Four  things  belong  to  a  judge — to  hear 
Courteously,  to  answer  wisely,  to  consider 
Soberly,  and  to  decide  impartially.  —Socrates. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  NAME— PARENTS  AND  THEIR  CHARACTERISTICS  —  BIRTH, 
EARLY  ENVIRONMENT,  AND  EDUCATION — REPUTATION — TEACHING  EXPE- 
RIENCES—LAW STUDIES  AND  PRACTICE — ACROSS  THE  PLAINS  TO  OREGON 
—POLITICAL  LIFE— INTEREST  IN  EDUCATION — MARRIAGE — MRS  DEADY 
AND  HER  FAMILY  —  PRESIDENTIAL  APPOINTMENT  OF  JUDGE  DEADY  — 
SOME  NOTABLE  DECISIONS — ORATORICAL  ABILITY — CHARACTER. 

THE  subject  of  this  study  consents  to  tell  the  story 
of  his  early  life  autobiographically.  This  is  gratify- 
ing, for  autobiography  has  charms  peculiar  to  itself; 
moreover,  this  autobiographer  is  one  who  possesses 
the  gift  of  narrative — the  "  knack  of  telling." 

On  the  threshold  of  his  public  career  he  lays  down, 
the  pen.  Speaking  in  the  first  person  he  says : 

My  father,  Daniel  Deady,  was  a  native  of  Kanturk, 
county  Cork,  Ireland.  He  was  born  on  September 
25,  1794,  arid  died  on  April  9,  1878.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  a  school,  then  of  some  local  repute,  in  the 
old  town  of  Mallow,  where  he  was  subsequently 
employed  as  a  tutor.  When  a  young  man  he  emi- 
grated to  the  United  States,  landing  at  Baltimore, 
where,  on  June  10,  1823,  he  married  my  mother, 
Mary  Ann  McSweeny,  a  native  of  that  city.  Her 
father,  Paul  McSweeny,  was  also  a  native  of  the 
county  Cork,  and  her  mother,  Miss  Chester,  was  a 
native  of  England. 

C.B.-II.     30  (465) 


466  GOVERNMENT-OREGON.     • 

The  name  is  supposed  to  be  of  Danish  origin,  and 
is  properly  pronounced  Deedy.  Once,  when  my  father 
was  teaching  in  a  strange  neighborhood)  he  was  asked 
what  was  the  proper  pronunciation  of  his  name.  He 
replied  that  genteel  people  called  him  Deedy,  while 
the  common  folk  said  Dady.  He  said  the  result  was, 
in  that  neighborhood,  he  was  generally  called  Deedy. 

He  was  a  rather  stern,  self-willed  man,  with  abund- 
ance of  moral  courage,  and  believed  in  the  rule  of 
what  Walter  Besant  calls  Father  Stick.  He  was 
somewhat  above  medium  size,  and  had  dark  hair  and 
brown,  hazel  eyes.  My  mother  was  tall  and  fair,  and 
so  was  her  mother.  They  both  had  auburn  hair. 
Her  father  was  short  of  stature,  and  had  beautiful 
black  hair,  fair  complexion,  and  blue  eyes.  He  was  a 
cabinet  maker  in  early  life,  but  had  become  a  trader 
and  shop-keeper  long  before  my  time.  For  some  years 
after  coming  to  the  United  States  my  father  followed 
teaching,  and  wherever  he  went  was  known  as  the 
industrious  schoolmaster. 

I  was  born  on  May  12,  1824,  near  Easton,  in  Tal- 
bot  county,  Maryland.  My  parents  had  five  children, 
of  whom  I  was  the  eldest.  I  went  to  school  to  my 
father  most  of  the  time  until  I  was  twelve  years  of 
age.  In  1828  we  moved  from  Baltimore  to  Wheel- 
ing, West  Virginia,  where  my  father  was  employed  to 
conduct  the  Lancasterian  academy — a  large  school, 
with  one  teacher  and  many  monitors.  The  system 
was  called  the  monitorial  or  Lancasterian.  My 
father  had  fitted  himself  for  it  before  coming  to  the 
United  States.  As  I  remember  it,  the  rod  was  an 
important  part  of  it.  My  father  bought  property  in 
Wheeling  of  old  Noah  Zane,  the  proprietor,  on  which 
he  built  houses  to  rent.  Wheeling  was  our  home  or 
resting  place  for  some  years,  but  in  the  latter  part  of 
this  period  my  father  was  engaged  in  teaching  near 
Cincinnati,  Covington,  Kentucky,  and  Rodney,  Mis- 
sissippi, taking  the  family  with  him.  In  the  fall  of 
1833  we  visited  Baltimore,  particularly  to  see  my 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  467 

mother's  maiden  sister  Eliza,  who  was  dying  of  con- 
sumption. On  the  way  back  to  Wheeling  the  former 
took  cold  and  we  stopped  for  the  winter  twelve  miles 
west  of  Fredericktown,  where  my  father  took  a  school 
and  my  mother  died  of  consumption,  in  the  thirty- 
eighth  year  of  her  age,  on  May  31,  1834.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  the  family  was  broken  up  for  the  time 
being,  and  I  spent  the  greater  portion  of  the  next  two 
years  of  my  life  with  my  grandfather  and  uncle  in  a 
store  in  Baltimore.  Then  I  returned  to  Wheeling 
with  my  father,  where  I  spent  the  time  at  school  and 
in  a  music  store  until  the  spring  of  1837,  when  my 
father  bought  a  farm  across  the  river  in  Ohio  and 
removed  there,  with  the  view  of  giving  his  sons — 
three  in  number — the  benefit  of  country  life  and  labor 

t/ 

on  a  farm.  Thereafter  I  lived  on  a  farm  with  him 
nearly  four  years  and  did  my  share  of  work,  such  as 
hoeing,  mowing,  reaping,  clearing,  chopping  and  haul- 
ing wood,  making  fence,  plowing,  threshing  with  the 
flail,  milking  cows,  and  taking  care  of  stock. 

Up  to  this  time  my  reading,  considering  the  scarcity 
of  books,  was  considerable.  It  included  Pope's  Iliad 
and  Odyssey,  copies  of  which  my  father  had  brought 
with  him  from  the  old  country,  Tales  of  a  Grandfather 
(of  France),  Perigrine  Pickle,  Children  of  the  Abbey, 
Thaddeus  of  Warsaw,  The  Scottish  Chiefs,  Weem's  Life  of 
Washington,  Hume's  History  of  England,  The  Douay 
Bible,  and  several  school  readers,  such  as  the  Enfield 
Speaker,  a  book  full  of  the  gems  of  English  literature, 
The  English  Reader,  The  Columbian  Orator,  and  selec- 
tions from  Mrs  Barbauld  and  Miss  Edgeworth.  But 
I  soon  grew  tired  of  living  in  the  country,  and  on 
some  disagreement  with  my  father  I  left  home  in 
February  1841,  and  went  to  Barnesville,  then  a 
thriving  village,  eight  miles  from  the  national  road, 
and  undertook  to  learn  the  blacksmith  trade.  My 
employer,  John  Kelly,  was  an  enterprising  man  and 
an  excellent  mechanic.  In  after  life  he  was  treasurer 
of  the  county  for  some  years,  and,  subsequently,  was 


468  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

one  of  the  founders  of  the  busy  glass  and  nail  town  of 
Bellaire,  on  the  Ohio  river.  His  wife,  Mrs  Rachel 
Kelly,  was  the  daughter  of  the  patriarch  of  the  vil- 
lage, Dr  Carolus  Judkins,  a  quaker  and  a  physician, 
originally  from  North  Carolina.  The  four  years  I 
spent  under  the  roof  of  this  excellent  woman  were  not 
without  profit  to  me. 

At  that  time  there  were  no  machine  or  factory- 
made  articles  in  use  in  that  country,  everything  being 
made  by  hand.  The  shop  was  a  large  one,  containing 
three  fires.  We  did  all  kinds  of  work — such  as  iron- 
ing wagons  and  buggies ;  making  edge  tools,  from  a 
broad  axe  to  a  pump  auger  or  plane  bit ;  farm  tools, 
from  a  plow  to  a  hoe ;  mill  irons,  saw  and  grist ;  all 
kinds  of  chains,  bridle  bits,  and  harness  irons,  horse- 
shoeing, and  all  kinds  of  repairing. 

I  made  a  verbal  agreement  to  serve  for  four  years, 
in  consideration  of  which  I  was  to  be  boarded  and 
lodged  with  the  family,  and  to  receive  $36  the  first 
year,  $48  the  second,  and  $60  the  third,  and  six 
months'  schooling.  The  compensation  for  the  last 
year  was  left  to  be  fixed  according  to  the  progress  I 
had  made  when  the  time  came.  It  was  then  fixed 
at  $84,  which  was  considered  quite  a  compliment  to 
my  skill  and  industry.  Out  of  my  wages  I  clothed 
myself,  bought  my  school  books,  and  had  a  little 
spending  money,  but  very  little. 

I  attended  the  Barnesville  academy  in  the  winter 
of  1843,  and  was  complimented  by  my  teachers  on  the 
progress  I  made,  and,  by  way  of  distinction,  was 
allowed  to  declaim  at  the  close  of  the  school  the 
extract  from  Wirt,  "  There  is  no  excellence  without 
great  labor." 

At  the  end  of  four  years  I  had  become  more  than 
an  average  workman  and  was  complimented  by  my 
employer  on  my  mechanical  skill  and  ability.  But, 
during  my  attendance  at  the  academy,  my  fondness 
for  reading  and  intellectual  pursuits  was  stimulated, 
and  I  concluded  to  follow  my  inclinations  in  that 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  469 

direction.  Accordingly,  I  attended  the  academy 
another  four  months  in  1845,  on  my  own  account. 
During  this  time  the  school  was  conducted  by  Pro- 
fessor Nathan  R.  Smith,  an  interesting  old  man,  the 
author  of  a  grammar  of  the  English  language,  and  an 
excellent  scholar.  When  I  left  school  the  professor 
gave  me  the  following  certificate,  which  I  have  pre- 
served with  great  care  and  now  regard  with  a  species 
of  reverence  : 

"  BARNESVILLE,  July  7,  1845. 
"  To  u-liom  it  may  concern: 

"  This  certifies  that  Matthew  P.  Deady  is  a  ycmng  gentleman  of  good 
moral  habits  and  character.  As  an  English  scholar  his  attainments  are 
respectable,  and  in  most  of  the  important  branches  extensive,  such  as 
arithmetic,  mathematics,  geography,  philosophy,  chemistry,  etc.  There- 
fore, I  cheerfully  recommend  him  as  qualified  to  take  charge  of  an  English 
school.  He  has  also  paid  some  attention  to  Latin. 

N.  R.  SMITH, 

[L.  s.  ]  Principal  of  the  Barnesville  A  cademy. " 

Armed  with  this  authority  I  set  out  to  find  a 
school.  But,  before  doing  so,  I  went  to  Benjamin 
Mackall,  a  merchant  of  Barnesville,  and  then  and  still 
the  first  citizen  of  the  place,  and  asked  him  for  the 
loan  of  $30,  wherewith  to  discharge  some  small  obli- 
gations I  had  incurred  and  been  unable  to  meet  while 
going  to  school.  He  gave  me  the  amount  without  a 
word,  which  I  repaid  with  great  pleasure  within  three 
months  from  the  receipts  of  my  first  school,  and  for 
which,  twenty-five  years  afterwards,  I  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  sending  him  a  copy  of  the  first  volume  of  my 
judicial  reports. 

Proceeding  to  St  Clairsville,  the  county  seat  of  the 
county,  I  called  on  the  school  examiner,  John  T.  Tid- 
ball,  an  old  lawyer  and  uncle  of  General  Tidball,  of 
the  United  States  army,  who,  after  giving  me  the  usual 
perfunctory  examination,  and  reading  Professor 
Smith's  testimonial,  handed  me  a  certificate,  which  I 
have  preserved,  and  for  which  I  gave  him  my  last 
half  dollar,  to  the  effect  that  I  was  "  qualified  to  teach 
writing,  arithmetic,  English  grammar,  geography, 
mathematics,  natural  philosophy,  and  chemistry,"  and 
that  I  was  "  a  young  gentleman  of  good  moral  char- 


470  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

acter  and  sober  and  temperate  habits,  and  fully  com- 
petent to  govern  and  manage  a  school." 

I  soon  obtained  a  school  in  the  neighborhood  of  St 
Clairsvilie,  the  tuition  being  payable  half  in  subscrip- 
tion and  half  in  public  money.  I  taught  this  school 
for  six  months,  earning  thereby  about  $22  a  month.  I 
had  as  pupils  two  quaker  girls,  in  whom  I  took  great 
pleasure.  The  oldest,  Miss  Jane  Edgerton,  has  since 
attained  distinction  as  a  teacher  in  that  county  and  as 
inspector  of  prisons. 

About  the  same  time  I  commenced  reading  law  writh 
the  late  Judge  William  Kennon,  of  St  Clairsville,  a 
good  man  and  a  great  lawyer.  He  had  been  in  congress 
several  terms  in  his  earlier  life,  and  was  contemporary 
there  with  the  famous  Philip  Dodridge,  of  West  Vir- 
ginia, of  whom  he  told  many  interesting  stories.  He 
was  then  president  judge  of  the  court  of  common 
pleas,  and  since  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  the 
state.  In  the  spring  of  1846  I  visited  Baltimore  on 
some  business  connected  with  my  grandfather's  estate, 
in  which,  as  one  of  the  representatives  of  my  mother, 
I  had  a  small  interest.  I  travelled  on  the  stage  to 
Cumberland,  and  thence  to  Baltimore  on  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  railway.  In  1833-4  I  had  travelled 
over  the  same  road,  between  Fredericktown  and  Bal- 
timore, in  a  "  dead-ax  "  car,  drawn  over  a  flat  rail,  laid 
much  of  the  way  on  granite  ties,  partly  by  steam  and 
partly  by  horse-power,  at  the  rate,  probably,  of  ten 
miles  an  hour. 

On  October  26,  1847,  I  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  before  Judges  Matthew 
Burchard  and  Peter  Hitchcock.  I  remained  in  St 
Ciairsville  in  the  office  of  Mr  Henry  Kennon,  master 
in  chancery  and  a  brother  of  Judge  Kennon,. until  the 
spring  of  1849.  In  this  time  I  had  some  business, 
mostly  before  justices  of  the  peace,  and  was  clerk  of 
the  township  one  year.  I  paid  some  attention  to  poli- 
tics, made  some  speeches,  and  spent  a  good  deal  of 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  471 

time  in  the  society  of  the  young  ladies.      I  remember 
these  as  happy,  happy  days. 

The  winter  before  starting  across  the  plains  I 
belonged  to  a  polemic  society.  In  view  of  the  recent 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  we  discussed  the  ques- 
tion, "Whether  mines  of  the  precious  metals  are  an 
advantage  to  a  country  in  which  they  exist  ?"  I  was 
on  the  negative  side  and  cited  the  experience  of  Spain 
and  her  colonies  as  proof  that  mining  for  gold  and  sil- 
ver was  an  injury  to  a  country.  Whatever  I  did  with 
my  hearers,  I  convinced  myself  that  I  was  in  the  right. 
And  this,  probably,  had  much  to  do  with  my  casting 
my  lot  in  Oregon,  when  all  the  world  was  going  to 
California. 

On  April  17,  1849,  I  started  across  the  plains, 
under  very  pleasant  and  favorable  auspices,  as  one  of 
the  family  of  a  gentleman  of  St  Clairsville,  who  had 
been  appointed  an  Indian  agent  for  the  Pacific  coast, 
with  government  transportation  thereto,  for  himself 
and  family  of  six.  But  the  arrangement  for  trans- 
portation fell  through,  and  I  was  thrown  on  my 
resources  and  worked  my  way  to  Oregon. 

On  the  morning  of  November  14th  I  got  out  of  a 
canoe  on  the  bank  of  the  Wallamet,  where  the  city  of 
Portland  now  stands,  and  took  a  look  about  the  place, 
while  our  Indian  crew  cooked  their  breakfast.  I  had 
breakfasted  two  miles  below,  at  Guild's  place,  where 
I  staid  all  night  and  slept  in  a  house  for  the  first  time 
for  over  five  months. 

Portland  was  then  in  the  day  of  small  things.  But 
even  at  that  early  day  there  were  sea-going  vessels 
tied  to  the  bank  or  moored  in  the  river,  which  signi- 
fied that  the  place  was  potentially  in  the  highway  of 
the  world.  That  evening  I  reached  Oregon  citv— - 
then  the  capital  of  the  country,  socially  and  commer- 
cially. There  I  rested  a  few  days,  and  leaving  my 
little  hair  trunk,  which  I  had  gotten  safely  across  the 
plains,  with  a  few  books  and  clothes,  I  started  on  foot 
for  Lafayette.  This  was  then  a  promising  young 


472  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

town  in  its  third  year  and  the  county  seat  of  Yamhill 
county,  then  and  now  the  best  agricultural  country  of 
its  acres  in  the  state.  There  I  found  Professor  John 
E.  Lyle  conducting  quite  a  large  school.  The  people 
had  generally  been  to  California,  and  returned  with 
plenty  of  gold  dust.  Many  of  them  had  gathered  into 
the  town,  where  the  young  people  and  children  were 
enjoying  the  luxury  of  going  to  school. 

My  purse  was  nearly  empty  and  the  present  means 
of  replenishing  it  were  very  limited.  I  soon  made  an 
arrangement  to  go  into  the  school  with  the  professor 
for  the  remaining  few  weeks  of  the  term  for  a  com- 
pensation sufficient  to  pay  my  board,  This  done,  I 
taught  another  term  as  an  equal  partner,  out  of  which 
I  made  about  seventy-five  dollars  per  month,  and  a 
pleasant  and  profitable  acquaintance  with  most  of  the 
best  people  of  the  county.  Not  a  few  boys  and  girls, 
now  heads  of  families,  remember  their  attendance  at 
this  school  with  pleasure,  as  a  place  where  they  got 
the  elements  of  a  practical  education,  and  still  speak 
with  pride  of  having  gone  "  to  school  to  Judge  Deady." 

Before  commencing  the  second  term  I  went  to  Ore- 
gon city  to  get  a  supply  of  school  books.  There  had 
just  been  a  great  freshet,  and  all  the  bridges  and  fer- 
ries on  the  road  had  been  carried  away.  The  only 
mode  of  travel  was  to  take  an  oar  on  a  boat,  bound  to 
the  place,  and  laden  with  two  thousand  five  hundred 
pounds  of  flour,  with  four  other  fellow  passengers  and 
oarsmen.  I  got  aboard  at  Dayton  in  the  morning 
and  reached  Oregon  city  the  next  day — staying  all 
night  at  Butteville,  at  the  Geers.  I  came  back  on  the 
return  trip.  The  boat  was  laden  with  "  store  goods  " 
and  a  new  crew  of  passengers.  We  were  two  nights 
and  part  of  three  days  making  the  trip.  We  came 
near  being  shipwrecked  at  Rock  island  rapids,  and 
slept  in  the  rain  one  night  without  anything  to  eat. 

I  also  acted  as  general  adviser  and  aid  to  the  county 
commissioners  in  setting  the  legal  machinery  of  the 
county  in  motion,  under  the  new  territorial  organiza- 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY.  473 

tion.  Here,  also,  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  my 
friend,  Mr  Aliio  Watt,  then  clerk  of  the  county,  and 
one  of  the  best  and  most  useful  men  in  the  country. 

In  March  1850,  Judge  O.  C.  Pratt  held  a  term  of 
the  district  court  at  Lafayette,  and  there  I  made  my 
debut  in  Oregon  as  a  lawyer  in  three  cases,  a  criminal 
action,  a  civil  one,  and  a  suit  for  divorce.  The  court 
was  held  in  a  large  unoccupied  room  in  Jacob  Hawn's 
tavern.  The  bench  and  furniture  were  improvised  for 
the  occasion.  But  the  dignity  and  order  of  the  court, 
so  far  as  the  same  depended  on  the  judge,  would  not 
suffer  from  a  comparison  with  Westminster  hall. 

The  first  one  hundred  dollars  I  got  ahead  I  sent 
back  to  St  Clairsville  to  Henry  Kennon,  to  discharge 
some  pecuniary  obligations  I  was  under  to  him  and 
other  friends,  who  were  kind  enough  to  help  me  when 
I  left  home.  They  had  heard  that  I  died  on  the 
plains  with  cholera  and  gave  up  the  amount  for  lost, 
and  this  remittance  was  the  first  news  to  the  contrary. 
The  discharge  of  this  obligation,  under  the  circum- 
stances, gave  me  great  pleasure  and  much  credit  with 
my  friends. 

At  the  election  on  the  first  Monday  in  June  1850, 
I  was  chosen,  without  the  intervention  of  any  caucus 
or  convention,  a  member  of  the  house  of  representa- 
tives from  Yamhill  county.  During  the  summer  I 
took  charge  of  the  store  of  my  good  friend,  Elder 
Glen  O.  Burnett,  brother  of  Governor  Burnett,  of 
California,  for  a  couple  of  months,  while  he  went  to 
San  Francisco  to  replenish  his  stock  of  goods.  Here 
I  enlarged  my  acquaintance  with  the  people  of  the 
county,  the  method  of  doing  business,  and  the  value 
of  articles  of  commerce.  Gold  dust  and  Spanish 
doubloons  were  a  large  part  of  the  currency.  For 
small  sums  I  took  a  pinch  from  the  customer's  buck- 
skin bag  of  dust,  while  larger  sums  were  weighed  out 
in  coffee  and  sugar  scales,  the  store  usually  getting 
down  weight.  The  Wallamet  valley  Indians  were 


474  GOVERNMENT -OREGON. 

good  customers,  and  in  dealing  with  them  I  became 
somewhat  proficient  in  the  Chinook  jargon. 

Sometimes  on  Sunday  I  attended  Campbellite  or 
Christian  meeting  at  the  country  school-house,  not  far 
from  Lafayette.  On  one  occasion  I  witnessed  a  trial 
there,  which  must  have  resembled,  in  simplicity  and 
directness,  a  proceeding  among  the  early  Christians. 

A  brother  was  charged  with  being  a  silent  partner 
in  a  saloon,  and  with  taking  his  young  daughters  to  a 
dancing  party.  He  had  been  labored  with,  and  did 
not  deny  the  charges,  but  refused  to  acknowledge 
that  he  was  in  the  wrong.  On  that  day  the  matter 
was  brought  before  the  congregation.  The  prosecutor, 
then  familiarly  known  as  Little  Preach,  has  since  been 
somewhat  noted  as  a  politician  and  journalist.  As 
soon  as  the  services  were  over,  he  stepped  on  the  plat- 
form, and  turning  his  quid  in  his  mouth  and  expecto- 
rating freely,  read  the  indictment  in  a  harsh,  hanging 
tone.  The  congregation  was  composed  of  plain,  seri- 
ous people,  and  there  was  much  feeling  and  some  tears 
among  the  brethren  at  the  prospect  of  a  feud,  and 
mayhap  a  split  in  the  body,  for  the  offending  brother 
was  well  to  do  and  had  friends.  But  the  prosecutor 
insisted  that  it  was  better  to  lop  off  the  unworthy 
member,  and  a  rising  vote  was  taken,  both  men  and 
women  participating.  On  the  saloon  question  the 
vote  was  twenty  for  and  twenty-two  against  expul- 
sion, while  on  the  dance  question  it  stood  twenty-two 
for  and  twenty  against  expulsion  ;  and  the  church  was 
said  to  be  for  whiskey,  but  against  the  dance.  And 
I  lived  to  sentence  the  prosecutor  to  pay  a  fine  for 
selling  liquor  to  Indians.  So  runs  the  world  around  ! 

In  December  the  subject  of  this  study  went  to 
Oregon  city,  to  attend  the  session  of  the  legislature, 
where  he  met  for  the  first  time  Asahel  Bush,  then 
clerk  of  the  house,  and  also  James  W.  Nesmith. 
With  both  of  them  he  formed  an  intimate  friendship, 
which  colored  his  after  life,  and  which,  indeed,  had  a 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY.  475 

marked  influence  on  the  current  of  public  affairs,  caus- 
ing them  sometimes  to  be  called  the  triumvirate.  His 
public  career  was  now  commenced,  and  he  has  never 
since  been  out  of  the  harness.  During  this  session  he 
served  on  several  important  committees,  including  the 
judiciary,  and  did  a  large  amount  of  work  in  drafting 
bills,  writing  reports,  and  shaping  legislation  in  the 
committees  of  the  house.  At  the  close  of  the  session, 
on  the  request  of  the  secretary,  General  Edward 
Hamilton,  he  prepared  for  publication  the  laws  then 
passed,  and,  also,  certain  of  those  of  the  session  of 
1849,  making  the  head  and  side  notes  thereto,  the 
whole  making  a  volume,  which  was  published  under 
the  direction  of  the  secretary.  This  was  the  first 
volume  of  laws  published  in  the  territory,  and  is  some- 
times called  the  Hamilton  code. 

In  the  summer  of  1851  he  was  elected  member  of 
the  legislative  council  from  Yamhill  county,  defeating 
David  Logan,  then  a  young  lawyer,  and  subsequently 
a  noted  man  in  Oregon.  The  contest  was  a  warm 

O 

one.  An  opposition  was  developed  against  Deady  on 
account  of  a  vote  he  had  given  in  the  late  session  of 
the  legislature  against  a  resolution  which  unqualifiedly 
endorsed  the  course  of  the  delegate,  Thurston,  in  con- 
gress, notwithstanding  the  confiscation  of  Dr  John 
McLoughlin's  land  claim  at  Oregon  city,  in  the  pass- 
age of  the  donation  act.  The  moral  courage  which 
he  showed  in  this  case,  in  voting  as  his  conscience 
dictated,  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  man, 
and  foreshadowed  many  other  like  positions  which 
he  has  taken  in  his  subsequent  career.  This  vote  dis- 
pleased Thurston's  friends,  and  just  then  their  name 
was  legion.  This  feeling  was  cultivated  by  Logan, 
who  for  his  own  benefit  affected  to  be  the  delegate's 
friend.  But  in  spite  of  all  opposition  Deady  was 
elected  by  a  handsome  majority.  He  served  in  the 
council  two  regular  sessions,  and  one  special  one,  being 
president  of  the  council  at  the  session  of  1852-3  and 
chairman  of  the  judiciary  committee  at  the  prior  ones. 


476  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

He  was  the  ruling  spirit  in  the  legislature,  and  took 
an  active  part  in  all  its  deliberations  and  proceedings. 

On  June  24,  1852,  he  married  Miss  Lucy  A.  Hen- 
derson, with  whom  he  has  lived  happily  ever  since. 
She  was  the  eldest  child  of  Robert  Henderson,  a  pros- 
perous farmer  of  Yamhill  county,  who  came  into  Ore- 
gon with  his  family  in  the  immigration  of  1846.  Mr 
Henderson  was  born  in  Tennessee,  and  grew  up  in 
Kentucky.  From  there  he  moved  to  Missouri,  where 
he  met  and  married  his  wife,  Miss  Rhoda  Holman,  of 
Kentucky.  The  immediate  ancestors  of  both  were 
from  Virginia,  Judge  Deady  has  three  living  chil- 
dren— handsome,  stalwart  sons.  Edward  Nesmith, 
who  was  born  September  5,  1853,  is  a  lawyer  of  good 
standing  and  ability,  and  considering  the  difference  in 
the  circumstances  and  opportunities,  will  doubtless 
honor  his  father's  name  and  reputation,  and  prove  a 
valuable  member  of  society.  Paul  Robert,  who  was 
born  November  20,  1856,  is  also  a  lawyer  of  promise. 
He  lias  acted  for  some  years  as  commissioner  of  the 
United  States  circuit  court.  The  third  son  is  Hen- 
derson Brooke  Deady,  who  was  born  March  4,  1869. 
He  is  a  talented  youth  of  more  than  usual  brightness, 
and  is  now  engaged  in  the  study  of  medicine. 

Mrs  Deady  was  born  February  26,  1835,  in  Clinton 
county,  Missouri,  on  her  father's  farm.  In  1849  and 
1850  she  attended  a  boarding  school  kept  by  Mrs 
Thornton  at  Oregon  city.  Subsequently,  and  until 
her  marriage,  she  attended  Dr  and  Mrs  Geary's  school 
in  Lafayette. 

One  who  is  qualified  to  speak  of  her  says  :  "  She  is 
a  lady  of  marked  character,  with  a  never-failing  tact 
and  a  nice  sense  of  propriety  and  the  fitness  of  things. 
She  carries  her  years  lightly,  and  although  over  fifty 
she  does  not  look  to  be  more  than  thirty.  She  is  of 
medium  size  and  attractive  in  person,  possessing  a 
graceful  figure  and  easy  and  agreeable  manners,  which 
take  tone,  it  may  be.  from  a  dash  of  French  blood  in 
her  veins.  In  complexion  she  is  a  decided  brunette. 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY.  477 

Her  large  dark  eyes,  beautiful  hair,  pleasant  smile, 
and  sweet  voice  distinguish  her  in  any  company. 
She  is  a  favorite  in  society,  and  in  her  home  is  a 
model  of  womanly  devotion  and  kindness.  In  the 
battle  of  life  she  has  performed  her  part  cheerfully 
and  faithfully,  and  she  is  entitled  to  a  share  of  the 
credit  in  all  that  her  husband  has  achieved.  Her 
purity  of  thought,  elevation  of  purpose,  and  gentle 
wisdom  exert  an  influence  on  all  around  her." 

In  the  spring  of  1853  Mr  Deady  was  appointed  by 
the  president  one  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court 
of  Oregon.  The  territory  was  divided  into  three  dis- 
tricts, and  in  every  county  of  each  of  these  one 
of  the  judges  held  a  district  court  twice  a  year. 
Judge  Deady  took  the  southern  district,  which 
included  the  country  south  of  the  great  valley.  It 
was  rapidly  filling  up  with  a  farming  population  from 
"  Oregon,"  as  the  saying  was,  and  "  the  states,"  and 
with  miners  and  traders  from  northern  California. 
There  were  no  considerable  towns  in  the  country  and 
no  courts  had  ever  been  held  in  it. 

In  the  summer  of  1853  he  paid  a  squatter  to  aban- 
don a  claim  on  Camus  swale,  in  the  Umpqua  valley, 
which  he  took  under  the  donation  act,  and  moved  his 
family  there  in  the  fall.  The  location  was  a  beautiful 
one,  and  he  called  the  place  Fair  Oaks,  taking  the 
name  from  Thackeray,  whom  he  was  reading  at  tho 
time.  Indeed,  while  on  the  farm,  and  particularly 
during  the  long  winter  evenings,  he  did  much  good 
reading,  including  the  English  periodicals,  making  this 
altogether  a  profitable  period  of  his  life.  There  he 
lived  until  1860,  dividing  his  time  between  holding 
courts  and  improving  and  planting  his  farm,  laboring 
regularly  with  his  own  hands.  He  was  absent  from 
home  every  year  about  six  months,  on  the  circuit  and 
at  the  capital  holding  court,  and  in  so  doing  travelling 
at  least  fifteen  hundred  miles,  nine-tenths  of  which 
was  done  on  horse-back.  He  organized  the  courts  in 
the  five  counties  of  southern  Oregon,  opened  the 


478  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

records,  and  often  wrote  them  up  during  the  evening. 
During  this  entire  period  he  never  missed  a  court  or 
failed  to  be  present  at  the  appointed  hour  for  opening 
one.  And  this  remarkable  record  for  inflexible  punc- 
tuality was  made  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Indian 
war  of  1855-6  occurred  at  this  time,  during  which  he 
travelled  all  over  the  country,  and  generally  alone. 
The  administration  of  justice  in  his  district  was  prompt 
and  satisfactory  to  the  public,  The  laws  against  crime 
were  impartially,  but  firmly  enforced  for  both  the 
high  and  the  low.  No  man,  however  influential,  could 
feel  that  he  was  above  the  reach  of  the  court,  and 
even  the  weakest  knew  that  he  could  obtain  substan- 
tial justice  there.  He  once  sentenced  a  white  ruffian 
to  the  penitentiary  for  the  crime  of  killing  an  Indian  in 
an  affray,  a  judgment  unprecedented  then  or  since  in 
that  country.  An  incident,  illustrative  of  the  man,  I 
will  give  in  his  own  words  : 

"  On  one  occasion,  on  May  8,  1859,  I  was  in  Rose- 
burg,  the  county  seat  of  the  county  in  which  I  lived, 
when  a  man  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  assault  with 
intent  to  kill,  after  being  pursued  out  of  town  and 
fired  at  by  a  disorderly  crowd,  calling  itself  a  posse 
comitatus.  The  accused  turned  on  his  pursuers  and 
fired  his  pistol,  mortally  wounding  one  of  them,  who 
was  quite  a  prominent  man  and  an  aspirant  for  the 
sheriff's  office.  The  accused  was  then  knocked  down 
and  beaten  and  brought  up  the  street,  in  front  of  the 
hotel,  where  it  was  ascertained  that  the  wounded  man 
was  dying.  Immediately  a  cry  w^ent  up  from  the 
excited  crowd — '  Hang  him  !  Hang  him  !'  At  this 

^  O 

moment  I  came  out  of  the  hotel,  where  I  had  been 
with  the  dying  man,  and  asked  of  a  friend  what  was 
up.  He  answered,  'They  are  going  to  hang  that 
man  :'  I  replied,  'Not  while  I  am  here,'  and  started 
for  the  crowd.  He  warned  me  to  keep  away  and 
attempted  to  restrain  me.  But  I  freed  myself  from 
his  grasp,  and  in  a  moment  forced  my  way  into  the 
center  of  a  dense  crowd  of  forty  or  fifty  persons, 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  479 

where  I  found  the  prisoner  on  his  knees,  and  his  face 
covered  with  blood.  One  end  of  a  lariat  was  round 
his  neck,  and  the  other  end  was  in  the  hands  of  a 
mounted  man,  who  was  passing  it  around  the  horn 
of  his  saddle,  preparatory  to  dragging  the  man  to 
death.  As  soon  as  the  latter  saw  me,  he  cried — 
'Oh!  Judge,  save  me!  for  God's  sake  save  rne.'  I 
never  shall  forget  the  look  of  terror  and  agony  depicted 
on  his  bruised  and  blood-stained  face.  No  time  was 
to  be  lost.  Grasping  the  loop  of  the  lariat,  which 
Avas  already  tightening  on  his  neck,  I  threw  it  over 
his  head,  just  as  the  rider  started  on  his  devilish  deed. 
Directing  the  crowd  to  stand  back,  I  called  the  sheriff 
to  come  with  me  and  take  the  prisoner  to  jail,  which 
he  did.  I  never  knew  how  I  got  through  the  crowd, 
but  a  young  man  of  about  one  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  weight,  told  me  afterwards,  that  he  was  on 
the  outside  of  the  ring  and  opposed  his  body  to  my 
further  progress,  when  I  caught  him  in  my  arms  and 
threw  him  over  my  head  backwards,  whereupon  way 
was  made  for  me  by  the  crowd.  This  was  the  only 
case  of  mob  violence  that  occurred  in  the  district 
while  I  was  judge." 

Meanwhile  Oregon  was  increasing  in  population, 
and  the  subject  of  a  state  government  was  pushed 
forward,  resulting  at  length  in  a  general  election  of 
members  to  a  convention  for  forming  a  constitution 
which  was  to  be  submitted  to  the  people.  The  con- 
vention, consisting  of  sixty  members  and  including 
the  leading  and  substantial  men  of  the  various  coun- 
ties of  the  territory,  met  at  Salem  on  August  17, 1857. 
Its  proceedings  were  in  the  main  earnest,  sober  and 
orderly,  being  generally  characterized  by  a  spirit  of 
fairness  and  a  desire  to  promote  the  public  good.  Thus 
a  constitution  was  formed  under  which  the  people  of 
Oregon  have,  for  the  most  part  lived  contentedly  and 
prosperously  for  over  thirty  years.  Judge  Deady, 
was  a  member  from  the  county  of  Douglas,  and  was 
made  president  of  the  convention.  The  other  judges 


480  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

of  the  supreme  court,  Williams  and  Olney  were  also 
members  of  the  body.  Although  in  the  chair,  Judge 
Deady  took  an  active  part  in  the  formation  of  the 
constitution  particularly  in  the  committee  of  the  whole, 
in  which  every  debatable  question  was  first  considered 
and  the  subject  took  its  final  form.  With  the  majority 
of  the  convention  he  favored  the  general  features  of 
the  constitution,  including  biennial  sessions  of  the 
legislature ;  a  four  years'  term  of  office  for  the  gov- 
ernor, secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  state,  rather 
than  two  years;  making  persons  competent  to  testify 
without  reference  to  their  religous  belief;  requiring 
the  seat  of  government  to  be  located  by  a  vote  of  the 
electors,  and  not  otherwise ;  viva  voce  voting  in  the 
legislature ;  submitting  the  questions  of  slavery  and 
free  negroes  to  a  separate  vote  of  the  people,  although, 
at  the  same  time,  he  expressed  the  opinion,  that  the 
state  had  no  right  under  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  exclude  the  latter  from  its  limits. 

Some  features  of  the  constitution  which  were  of 
great  value  and  importance  to  the  state,  were  especially 
moulded  by  him.  In  doing  this  he  had  to  overcome 
the  force  of  habit  which  led  the  greater  part  of  the 
convention  to  look  upon  the  organic  act  of  the  terri- 
tory as  a  precedent.  Under  it,  the  term  of  the  judges 
was  four  years,  and  an  alien  might  vote  immediately 
on  declaring  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  Through  his  efforts  the  terms  of  the 
judges  were  extended  to  six  years,  and  he  lacked  but 
one  vote  of  making  them  eight,  as  they  certainly 
should  have  been. 

He  was  largely  instrumental  in  adding  a  clause  to 
the  judicial  oath  of  office,  to  the  effect  that  the  affiant 
would  not  accept  any  other  than  a  judicial  office, 
during  the  term  for  which  he  was  elected.  Notwith- 
standing this  obligation,  however,  some  of  the  judges 

O  O  «/  r^ 

of  Oregon  have  cast  a  longing  eye  on  the  United  States 
senate,  but  no  legislature  has  as  yet  been  found  that 
would  consent  to  be  an  accessory  before  the  fact  to  the 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  481 

moral  perjury  involved  in  such  preferment.  He  was 
not  in  favor  of  allowing  an  alien  to  vote  before  he  was 
naturalized,  but  only  succeeded  in  having  provision 
made,  that  he  should  declare  his  intentions,  at  least  one 
year  before  the  election  at  which  he  offered  to  vote. 
He  was  largely  instrumental  in  giving  final  shape  to 
the  provisions  concerning  corporations,  which  forbids 
their  being  formed  otherwise  than  under  general  laws, 
and  limits  the  liability  of  stockholders  to  the  amount 
of  their  subscription  to  the  capital  stock  of  the 
corporation. 

The  sound,  calm,  and  philosophical  spirit  in  which 
Judge  Deady  viewed  the  many  and  complex  problems 
which  are  involved  in  the  making  of  a  state  are  echoed 
in  the  spirit  of  his  address  to  the  convention  at  its 
adjournment:  "I  congratulate  you  upon  the  conclu- 
sion of  your  labors  in  so  short  a  time,  and  with  so 
little  consequent  expense  to  the  country.  For  myself, 
while  objecting  to  some  of  the  provisions  of  this  con- 
stitution, and  looking  to  changes  in  time  that  will 
improve  it,  I  accept  it  as  it  is.  In  reference  to  the 
question  as  to  whether  we  are  prepared  to  become  a 
state,  I  have  not  been  so  sanguine  as  some  individuals. 
Upon  the  questions  of  numbers  and  wealth,  I  think 
we  are  amply  prepared.  But  a  country  requires  age 
and  maturity  to  prepare  it  to  become  an  independent 
state  and  government.  It  is  for  the  country  to 
determine  that  question.  For  myself,  I  am  willing 
to  vote  to  enter  on  this  new  form  of  government,  and 
the  best  reward  I  can  wish  vou  is,  that  your  constit- 
uents may  approve  your  labors." 

The  constitution  was  adopted  by  the  people  on 
November  9, 1857,  by  a  large  vote;  and  in  June,  1858, 
an  election,  provisional  in  its  effect  on  the  admission 
of  Oregon  to  the  union,  was  held  for  the  choice  of  a 
legislature  and  officers  for  the  new  state. 

The  judges  of  the  supreme  court  were  each  elected 
from  the  district  in  which  they  lived  and  held  courts. 
And  the  people  of  Judge  Deady' s  district,  notwith- 


€.  B.— II.     31 


482  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

standing  the  fact  that  it  was  a  time  of  strong  political 
feeling,  and  that  he  was  always  outspoken  on  public 
questions,  recognized  his  eminent  qualifications  for  the 
position  and  desired  him  to  fill  it.  No  one  thought  it 
worth  while  to  run  against  him;  he  was  named  for 
judge  from  the  southern  district  in  which  he  lived  and 
held  court  for  nearly  six  years,  and  was  elected  with- 
out opposition. 

On  the  admission  of  Oregon  into  the  union,  in  1859, 
he  was  appointed  United  States  district  judge.  The 
place  was  acceptable  to  him,  for  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  for  a  judicial  career.  Moreover,  he  practically 
had  no  option  in  the  matter,  for  the  position  was  liter- 
ally forced  upon  him.  All  the  leading  men,  who 
were  candidates  for  congressional  honors  and  state 
offices,  and  particularly  his  neighbor  General  Joseph 
Lane,  were  anxious  to  eliminate  him  from  the  senatorial 
contest,  and  agreed  in  asking  him  to  keep  out  of  the 
way  and  take  the  district  judgeship.  The  solicitude 
of  these  candidates  shows  clearly  how  excellent  were 
Deady's  chances  of  the  senatorship.  But  he  did  not 
desire  the  position,  preferring  the  judicial  office,  and 
he  told  them  so.  But  while  the  state  was  waiting  for 
admission  to  the  union,  and  after  the  congressional 
prizes  had  been  drawn,  and  the  state  offices  distrib- 
uted, some  of  the  persons  who  had  been  most  urgent 
that  he  should  accept  the  district  judgeship  endeav- 
ored to  prevent  his  appointment.  But  General  Lane, 
who  had  the  power  in  the  premises,  was  faithful  to 
his  word,  and  insisted  on  and  procured  Judge  Deady's 
appointment.  Upon  the  receipt  of  his  commission, 
dated  March  3, 1859,  he  qualified,  and  at  the  same  time 
declined  the  position  on  the  state  supreme  bench.  In 
the  fall  of  that  year  he  opened  court  at  Salem,  the 
place  appointed  by  the  act  of  admission  ;  but  realiz- 
ing that  the  bulk  of  the  business  peculiar  to  his  court 
was  likely  to  arise  in  Portland,  he  went  to  Washing- 
ton by  way  of  the  Isthmus,  and  procured  the  passage 
of  an  act  locating  the  court  at  Portland.  ''In  the  fall 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY.  483 

of  1860,"  he  says,"  I  left  the  dear  old  farm— the  domes- 
tic animals,  with  which  I  was  on  friendly  and  familiar 
terms ;  the  garden,  orchard,  and  vines  on  which  I 
had  labored  for  years — and  removed  to  Portland, 
where  I  have  lived  ever  since,  engaged  in  holding  the 
United  States  courts." 

In  the  spring  of  1862,  he  was  appointed  code  com- 
missioner for  the  state,  and  during  the  summer  of 
that  year  he  prepared  the  code  of  civil  procedure, 
which  was  enacted  by  the  legislature  that  met  in  the 
following  September,  substantially  as  it  came  from  his 
hands.  In  the  preparation  of  the  code  there  were 
nominally  associated  with  him  ex-Senator  James  K. 
Kelly  and  Governor  Addison  C.  Gibbs.  They  took 
no  part  in  its  preparation,  but  materially  aided  in  its 
passage,  the  one  as  member  of  the  senate  and  the 
other  as  governor. 

During  spare  moments  at  this  session,  which  he 
attended  as  commissioner,  he  prepared  a  general 
incorporation  act,  which  was  passed  as  prepared,  with 
one  unimportant  addition.  It  has  kept  its  place  on 
the  statute  book  ever  since.  This  is  perhaps  the  first 
act  in  the  United  States  that  put  all  business  corpora- 
tions on  the  same  and  a  proper  basis,  by  declaring 
that  any  three  or  more  persons  may  incorporate  to 
engage  in  any  lawful  enterprise  in  the  manner  pro- 
vided by  the  act.  The  importance  and  the  wide- 
spread influence  of  such  a  law  is  best  realized  when 
we  consider  how  important  it  is  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  entire  community  to  have  its  large  enterprises 
conducted  on  a  sound  and  legitimate  basis. 

The  legislature  then  asked  him  to  prepare  a  code 
of  criminal  procedure  and  a  penal  code,  and  to  report 
them  to  its  next  session  in  1864.  He  prepared  these, 
and  also  a  justices'  code  with  forms  of  proceedings 
before  justices  of  the  peace,  and  they  were  enacted  as 
reported  and  are  still  in  force.  The  thorough  prepa- 
ration of  these  important  matters  involved  a  large 
amount  of  labor  and  research ;  for  the  many  impor- 


484  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

tant  problems  presented  for  solution  had  to  be  con- 
sidered not  only  in  their  legal  aspect,  but  also  in 
relation  to  the  needs  of  the  country,  and  the  real 
condition  of  society.  The  fact  that  they  have  with- 
stood the  test  of  actual  use  for  so  many  years  is  the 
best  proof  of  the  soundness  with  which  they  were  origi- 
nally formulated.  At  this  session  the  legislature  passed 
an  act  incorporating  the  city  of  Portland,  just  as  it 
came  from  Judge  Deady's  hands,  which  is  still  sub- 
stantially in  force,  and  has  been  the  model  for  acts 
incorporating  towns  in  Oregon  ever  since.  At  this 
session  of  the  legislature  there  was  a  clamor  from 
various  ignorant  and  interested  sources  against  the 
code  of  civil  procedure  which  was  passed  at  the  ses- 
sion of  1862.  The  provisions  making  all  persons 
competent  witnesses,  without  reference  to  race  or 
color,  was  the  principal  objection  urged  by  those  who 
were  ignorant  and  prejudiced.  The  salutary  provi- 
sions on  the  subject  of  divorce  were  railed  at  by 
sundry  lawyers  whose  questionable  gains  were  unfav- 
orably affected  thereby.  The  subject  was  referred  to 
the  judiciary  committee  of  both  houses,  which  did 
Judge  Deady  the  honor  of  inviting  him  to  participate 
in  their  deliberations.  There  the  wind-bag  was  soon 
pricked,  and  after  the  adoption  of  a  few  unimportant 
amendments  that  he  prepared,  the  subject  was  put  to 
rest.  During  this  session  he  also  prepared  statutes 
on  the  subject  of  the  election  and  qualification  of 
district  attorney,  sheriff,  county  clerk,  treasurer, 
assessor,  surveyor,  commissioner  of  the  county  court, 
justices  of  the  peace,  and  constables,  which  were 
passed  as  prepared,  and  are  still  in  the  statute  book. 
The  legislature  then  asked  him  to  make  a  compila- 
tion of  all  the  laws  of  Oregon,  including  the  codes 
then  in  force,  for  publication  in  one  volume.  This 
was  a  laborious  and  delicate  undertaking.  The  mis- 
cellaneous laws  of  Oregon  were  scattered  through  the 
current  statutes  from  1843  to  that  date.  The  organic 
act  of  1848  had  continued  in  force  the  laws  of  the 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  485 

provisional  government  not  inconsistent  therewith, 
and  the  constitution  of  1857  had  continued  in  force 
all  prior  laws  not  in  conflict  therewith.  It  thus 
devolved  upon  the  compiler  to  determine  what  acts  or 
parts  of  acts  were  then  in  force,  and  what  were  not. 
He  had  also  to  substitute  the  proper  officers  and  tri- 
bunals created  by  the  constitution,  for  those  charged 
with  similar  functions  and  jurisdictions  under  the  ter- 
ritorial and  provisional  governments.  This  task 
required  care,  discrimination,  and  judgment  in  its  per- 
formances. The  work  was  well  done  and  was 
enriched  with  many  valuable  notes  of  a  historic  as 
well  as  a  legal  character.  The  published  volume,  of 
some  1,100  pages,  placed  the  laws  of  Oregon  for  the 
first  time  in  convenient  and  accessible  shape  ;  and 
Deadys  Codes  and  Compilation  ranks  high  among  pro- 
ductions of  this  kind.  In  1874,  at  the  request  of  the 
legislature,  he  made,  aided  by  La  Fayette  Lane,  a 
similar  compilation.  In  all  this  work  of  codification 
and  compilation,  which  was  done  without  any  clerical 
aid,  Judge  Deady  was  much  more  influenced  by  a 
desire  to  promote  the  public  good,  arid  to  link  his 
name  with  the  legislature  of  the  state,  than  by  the 
meager  compensation  allowed  by  the  legislature.  Few 
if  any  states  have  had  the  same  work  done  so  well, 
or  at  so  little  cost. 

By  1863  the  depreciation  of  greenbacks  had  ren- 
dered the  judge's  salary  altogether  inadequate  to  his 
support.  He  had  already  been  compelled  to  sell  his 
farm  to  enable  him  to  make  payments  on  a  home  he 
had  purchased  in  Portland.  As  a  means  of  adding 
something  to  his  resources  he  became  the  regular 
correspondent  of  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin.  He 
continued  this  work  for  nearly  four  years,  writing  a 
letter  of  a  column  or  more  every  week,  in  which  he 
spoke  of  passing  events  in  Oregon,  sketched  her  pub- 
lic men  and  measures,  past  and  present,  and  had 
something  to  say  on  all  important  current  matters ; 
and  now  and  then  he  gave  a  paragraph  on  an  old 


4SG  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

book  or  author.  The  letters  attracted  attention  in 
Oregon  and  elsewhere  not  less  on  account  of  the  form 
than  their  substance.  The  experience  of  writing  for 
publication  under  the  responsibility  of  being  seen  in 
print — was  he  says,  "a  good  school  for  me,  besides 
the  few  hundred  dollars  it  added  to  my  scanty 


income." 


In  1867-8-9,  there  was  no  circuit  judge  of  the 
United  States  courts  on  this  coast,  and  Judge  Deady 
was  assigned  by  Mr.  Justice  Field  to  hold  the  circuit 
court  in  San  Francisco.  He  was  thus  engaged  for 
some  three  months  in  each  of  these  years,  and  cleared 
the  long  delayed  docket.  His  holding  the  court 
daring  these  sessions  brought  the  people  of  California 
for  the  first  time  into  direct  contact  with  the  judge, 
although  of  course  his  work  in  Oregon  had  already 
given  him  a  high  reputation  as  a  jurist  and  patriotic 
citizen.  By  the  end  of  his  first  term,  the  bar  of 
San  Francisco  freely  admitted  his  great  abilities,  and 
passed  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  : 

WHEREAS,  the  Honorable  Matthew  P.  Deady,  United  States  district 
judge  for  the  district  of  Oregon,  has,  by  the  allotment  of  the  United  States 
supreme  court,  presided  over  the  United  States  circuit  court  for  the  district 
of  California  during  the  present  term,  and  for  the  first  time  been  brought 
in  contact  with  the  members  of  the  California  bar:  Therefore,  be  it 

RESOLVED,  That  upon  Judge  Deady's  departure  from  among  us  to 
return  to  his  own  district,  the  members  of  the  bar  of  California  desire  to 
express  their  thanks  to  him  for  the  cheerfulness  and  readiness  which  he  has 
exhibited  in  the  disposal  of  a  large  number  of  important  cases,  and  that 
they  must  bear  testimony  to  the  judicial  courtesy,  ability,  and  learning 
with  which  he  has  performed  his  judicial  duties,  and  has  won  for  himself 
the  respect,  esteem,  and  confidence  not  only  of  ourselves,  but  of  the  public. 

THOMPSON  CAMPBELL,  chairman, 
GEORGE  E.  WHITNEY,  secretary. 

San  Francisco,  April  26,  1867. 

During  the  first  term  he  heard  and  decided  the 
famous  case  of  McCall  vs  McDowell  (1  Deady  233),  in 
which  he  held  that  congress  alone  had  the  power  to 
suspend  the  habeas  corpus,  and  that  the  attempted 
suspension  of  the  writ  by  the  president  without  the 
authority  of  congress  on  September  24,  1862,  was 
illegal  and  void.  Such  an  important  decision  as  this 
deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice,  and  attracted 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  487 

wide  attention  throughout  the  country  when  it  was 
rendered.  In  April  1865,  General  McDowell,  issued 
an  order  for  the  arrest  of  all  persons  indulging  in 

Eiblic  rejoicing  over  the  assassination  of  President 
incoln.  Under  this  order  McCall  was  arrested  in 
the  interior  of  California,  and  confined  at  Fort 
Alcatraz,  but  was  at  length  discharged.  Subsequently 
he  brought  an  action  for  damages  against  General 
McDowell,  and  the  subordinate  who  made  the  arrest, 
in  one  of  the  courts  of  California.  The  action 
was  removed  to  the  United  States  circuit  court, 
where  it  was  tried  without  a  jury.  The  court  held 
that  the  action  could  be  maintained  against  General 
McDowell,  but  not  against  the  subordinate,  who  was 
acting  in  obedience  to  an  order  of  his  superior  not 
illegal  on  its  face.  Damages  were  awarded  to  McCall 
in  the  sum  of  six  hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars. 
These  were  only  intended  to  compensate  the  plaintiff 
for  his  expenses  and  loss  of  time.  In  the  opinion,  it 
was  said,  that  while  the  words  used  by  McCall  did 
not  constitute  a  legal  crime,  they  were,  under  the 
circumstances,  greatly  to  be  reprobated. 

The  court  held  that  while  the  act  of  1863,  giving 
power  to  the  president  to  cause  arrests  to  be  made 
in  particular  cases,  without  the  cause  thereof  being 
subject  to  enquiry  on  habeas  corpus,  either  directly 
or  by  his  subordinates,  was  constitutional  and  valid, 
yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  president  did  not  authorize 
McDowell  to  make  the  arrest  in  question,  and  there- 
fore he  could  not  claim  the  benefit  of  the  act. 

"  The  power  of  arbitrary  arrest"  said  Judge  Deady 
in  the  opinion,  "  is  a  very  dangerous  one.  In  the 
hands  of  improper  persons  it  would  be  liable  to  very 
great  abuse.  If  every  officer  throughout  the  United 
States  during  the  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus  is 
authorized  to  arrest  and  imprison  whom  he  will,  as 
'aiders  and  abettors  of  the  enemy,'  without  further 
orders  from  the  president,  or  those  to  whom  he  has 
specially  committed  such  authority,  the  state  of  things 


488  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

that  would  follow  can  better  be  imagined  than 
described." 

In  the  excited  state  of  public  feeling  at  the  time 
this  celebrated  decision  was  rendered,  considerable 
hostile  criticism  was  indulged  in,  but  as  time  cooled 
the  passions  of  the  moment  it  came  to  be  recognized 
universally  that  the  opinion  was  based  on  sound  prin- 
ciples which  could  not  be  subverted. 

The  originality  which  Judge  Deady  brings  to  bear 
on  all  his  decisions,  and  his  habit  of  viewing  questions 
from  the  standpoint  of  first  principles,  was  illustrated 
in  the  case  of  Martin etti  vs  Maguire  (1  Deady  216). 
The  action  was  brought  about  by  the  rivalry  of  two 
dramatic  companies  the  one,  who  claimed  the  exclusive 
right  to  exhibit  the  Black  Crook,  seeking  under  the 
copyright  law  to  prevent  another  from  presenting  a 
colorable  imitation,  under  the  name  of  the  Black  Rook. 

The  court  found  that  the  plaintiff  had  the  exclusive 
right  as  assignee,  to  exhibit  the  Black  Crook  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  that  the  defendant  was  producing  substan- 
tially the  same  play  under  the  name  of  the  Black  Rook, 
but  denied  the  relief  sought  on  the  ground  that  such 
a  composition  was  not  entitled  to  copyright. 

On  this  point  Judge  Deady  said,  the  power  given 
to  congress  to  grant  copyright  is  limited  to  the 
purpose  of  promoting  "the  progress  of  science  and  the 
useful  arts."  The  Black  Crook  is  a  mere  lewd  spectacle, 
however  gilded.  It  in  no  way  tends  to  the  promo- 
tion of  science  or  the  useful  arts,  and  is  therefore 
not  entitled  to  copyright. 

Another  case  which  came  up  while  he  was  holding 
court  in  California  attracted  much  attention  through- 
out the  entire  country.  In  the  Avery-Bigler  case 
a  general  discussion  arose  on  the  subject  of  the  tenure 
of  office  under  the  federal  constitution  and  the  laws, 
and  of  the  power  to  remove  incumbents  from 
office.  Judge  Deady  gave  a  thorough  discussion  of 
the  constitutional  principles  involved,  holding 
that  the  appointing  power  under  the  constitution, 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  489 

included  the  president  and  the  senate — the  nomination 
and  the  confirmation.  The  case  was  doubtless  influen- 
tial in  hastening  the  passage  by  congress  of  the 
Tenure  of  office  Act,  of  1867. 

In  1883,  he  sat  in  the  circuit  court  of  California 
on  the  hearing  of  the  great  debris  case  (9  Sawyer  441) 
and  wrote  a  concurring  opinion  against  the  right  of 
the  hydraulic  miners  to  deposit  the  debris  of  their 
mines  in  the  streams  of  the  state.  Vast  interests 
were  at  stake  in  this  decision.  The  farmers  of  the 
Sacramento  valley  were  arrayed  against  the  miners 
of  the  mountains,  which  for  a  generation  had  produced 
millions  of  gold.  But  the  production  of  this  vast 
quantity  of  precious  metal  was  slowly  but  surely 
bringing  irretrievable  ruin  upon  the  farmers  that  were 
cultivating  the  rich  alluvial  soil  that  lay  along  the 
stream  below.  And  while  the  decision  against  the 
miners  struck  a  heavy  blow  at  an  important  industry, 
it  unquestionably  was  founded  on  justice  and  sound 
law ;  moreover  it  emphasized  the  fact,  which  is  now 
coming  to  be  clearly  recognized,  that  the  great  and 
permanent  wealth  of  California  is  in  her  fertile  soil, 
rather  than  in  her  gold  and  silver.  In  1885  Judge 
Deady  again  sat  in  the  same  court,  in  the  famous  case 
of  Sharon  vs  Hill  (11  Sawyer  290)  and  wrote  the 
leading  opinion  therein,  in  support  of  the  decision  of 
the  court,  that  the  so-called  marriage  contract  was  a 
palpable  forgery,  invented  to  support  the  defendant 
in  a  predatory  raid  on  Sharon's  fortune.  His  masterly 
presentation  of  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  his  unanswer- 
able argument  in  support  of  his  conclusion  therefrom, 
broke  the  back,  so  to  speak,  of  Sarah  Althea's  claim 
to  be  the  wife  of  Sharon,  and  cast  deserved  odium 
upon  this  impudent  attempt  to  dignify  a  "furtive 
intercourse"  between  a  man  and  woman  with  the 
name  of  marriage. 

During  all  this  time,  and  since,  he  has  held  the 
district  and  circuit  courts  in  Oregon,  doing  all  the 
business  in  the  former  and  nearly  all  in  the  latter. 


490  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

Many  of  the  cases  decided  by  him  in  these  courts 
were  important,  both  as  to  the  amount  at  stake  and 
the  questions  involved,  particularly  so  in  the  land, 
railway,  bankruptcy,  and  admiralty  cases.  The 
reports,  1  Deady  and  the  14  volumes  of  Sawyer, 
bear  evidence  of  the  prodigious  industry,  profound 
learning,  and  great  ability  of  the  district  judge  of 
Oregon  during  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

Herein  are  given  the  titles  of  a  few  of  these, 
with  a  brief  statement  of  the  point  decided. 

And  first  his  administration  of  the  bankrupt  act 
of  1867  was  characterized  by  promptness  and  an 
intelligent  appreciation  of  the  subject  and  purpose 
of  the  act,  and  was  altogether  satisfactory  to  the 
business  community.  As  a  consequence  the  board 
of  trade  of  Portland  has  always  favored  a  renewal 
of  the  act.  His  exposition  of  the  law,  and  the 
liabilities  and  rights  of  debtor  and  creditor  there- 
under, are  contained  in  a  long  line  of  decisions  which 
have  been  cited  and  followed  all  over  the  country. 

In  the  Canada,  (7  Saw.,  175),  he  held  against  the 
weight  of  former  rulings  that  a  stevedore's  labor  was 
a  maritime  service,  for  which  he  had  a  lien  on  the 
ship,  and  this  doctrine  is  now  the  prevailing  one. 

In  ex  parte  Koehler,  (11  Saw.,  37  and  12  Saw., 
446),  he  held  that  notwithstanding  the  Oregon  act  of 
1885,  regulating  the  transportation  of  passengers  and 
property,  a  railway  corporation  has  a  vested  right  to 
collect  and  receive  a  reasonable  compensation  for  the 
transportation  of  persons  and  property,  which  the 
legislature  cannot  impair  or  destroy  ;  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  retaining  or  securing  business,  but  not  other- 
wise, it  may  charge  less  for  a  long  haul  than  a  short  one 
in  the  same  direction.  And  in  the  latter  case  he  held 
under  section  4  of  the  inter-state  commerce  act,  that 
under  like  conditions  and  circumstances  a  railway 
corporation  may  also  charge  less  for  a  long  haul  than 
a  short  one,  but  not  for  the  purpose  of  favoring  one 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  491 

person  or  place  at  the  expense  or  to  the  prejudice  of 
another. 

Gilmore  vs  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  company, 
(9  Saw.,  558),  is  a  pioneer  case  for  the  doctrine  that 
all  persons  engaged  in  a  common  service  are  not  "fel- 
low servants,"  as  was  held  in  Priestly  vs  Fowler,  (3 
M.  and  W.,  1),  Murray  vs  Railway  company,  (1 
McMulL,  385),  and  Farwell  vs  Boston  railway  com- 
pany, (4  Mt.  49),  so  that  the  common  employer  is 
not  liable  for  an  injury  sustained  by  one  servant 
through  the  negligence  or  misconduct  of  another. 
On  the  contrary  Judge  Deady  held  in  this  case,  that 
these  authorities  were  not  applicable  to  the  changed 
condition  of  modern  industries,  carried  on  by  ideal 
and  invisible  masters  called  corporations,  and  that 
where  a  servant  has  authority  to  direct  another,  or 
to  provide  necessary  material  and  appliances  for  his 
convenient  and  safe  employment,  he  is  so  far  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  master,  who  is  responsible  in  dam- 
ages for  any  injury  sustained  by  such  other,  by  reason 
of  the  negligence  or  misconduct  of  such  representa- 
tive. Shortly  afterward  the  supreme  court  of  the 
United  States,  in  C.  and  M.  By.  Co.  vs  Boss,  (112 
U.  S.,  389),  announced  the  same  doctrine. 

Like  other  profound  jurists,  Judge  Deady  attaches 
great  importance  to  the  study  of  the  principles  of  the 
common  law.  Indeed,  the  value  of  such  study  was 
strongly  and  ably  presented  in  an  address  presented 
by  him  before  the  Portland  law  association  in 
December  1866.  The  following  extracts  from  that 
address  may  be  read  with  profit  by  every  citizen, 
whether  he  be  a  lawyer  or  engaged  in  other  callings  : 

"  I  am  aware  that  there  is  an  impression  abroad  in 
the  profession,  as  well  as  out  of  it,  that  the  common 
law  is  among  the  things  that  were  but  are  not,  that 
it  has  become  superseded  and  thrown  in  the  back- 
ground by  the  modern  codes  of  procedure,  and 
that  time  spent  in  the  study  or  perusal  of  the  old 
reports,  or  works  of  Coke,  Comyn,  Bacon,  and  even 


492  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

Blackstone,  is  time  wasted.  But  let  me  assure  you 
now  that  this  is  a  grevious  mistake.  All  judicial  pro- 
ceedings in  the  United  States, — unless  it  be  in  the 
state  of  Louisiana, — however  named  or  modified  by 
systematic  codes  or  mere  desultory  and  miscellaneous 
statutes  are  based  upon  and  constructed  from  the  com- 
mon law  of  England  and  America.  They  all  presuppose 
an  acquaintance  with  the  general  principles  and  axioms 
of  the  common  law,  and  are  impregnated  and  animated 
to  speak  by  its  spirit  and  genius. 

"For  the  enforcement  of  every  legal  right  and  the 
redress  of  every  injury  thereto,  of  which  the  law 
takes  cognizance,  our  modern  code  of  procedure,  like 
the  common  law,  as  declared  by  the  statutes  of  West- 
minster 2d,  gives  every  one  an  action  on  the  case,  with- 
out other  name  or  signification.  Yet,  with  our  vision 
bounded  by  the  narrow  horizon  of  to-day  or  yesterday, 
or  even  a  generation,  we  plume  ourselves  upon  our 
superiority  over  our  forefathers,  and  point  to  our  law 
and  other  reforms  as  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact, 
when  in  truth  we  are  only  groping  our  way  back  to 
the  old  paths.  After  this,  let  us  abate  our  boasting, 
and  say  with  Solomon,  l  There  is  no  new  thing  under 
the  sun.' 

"  To  the  people  who  speak  the  English  tongue,  the 
common  law  is  something  more  than  a  rule  of  action 
prescribed  by  the  supreme  power  of  the  state,  com- 
manding what  is  right  and  forbidding  what  is  wrong, 
but  it  is  also  the  wisdom  of  their  ancestors — the  out- 
growth of  themselves,  at  once  a  tradition  and  a  living 
inheritance.  Its  principles,  maxims,  and  aphorisms 
enter  into  and  give  tone  and  color  to  our  morals, 
politics,  and  literature.  Whether  we  exist  as  a  king- 
dom, commonwealth,  or  republic,  it  adapts  itself  to  our 
condition,  and  furnishes  at  once  the  bulwark  and  the 
limit  of  our  rights  of  person  and  property,  and  of 
government  and  subject  or  citizen.  As  the  English 
race  are  now  the  only  people  who  are  colonizing  the 
world,  this  language  and  law  bids  fair  to  encompass 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY.  493 

the  earth  and  become  the  speech  and  rule  of  the 
world. 

"Nowadays,  it  is  the  fashion  in  some  quarters  to 
sneer  at  the  common  law  as  a  relic  of  feudalism  and 
barbarism,  and  to  point  to  the  civil  law  as  the  proper 
source  from  whence  to  draw  the  jurisprudence  of  a 
highly  civilized  and  refined  people.  But  I  caution  you 
to  beware  of  the  spirit,  and  be  not  persuaded  by  it. 
.  .  .  The  laws  of  a  people  react  upon  them,  and  mould 
their  character  and  opinions.  The  common  law 
people — the  English  race,  wherever  they  go,  establish 
limited  governments,  with  parliaments  and  juries ;  but 
the  people  of  civil  law — the  Latin  race,  always  come 
under  some  modification  of  the  empire — in  which  the 
will  of  the  prince,  emperor,  or  chieftain  is  the  supreme 
law. 

"In  so  far  then  as  we  discard  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  common  law,  and  adopt  those  of  the 
civil,  we  are  paving  the  way  for  the  political  and  social 
condition  of  the  Roman  empire,  in  the  age  of  the 
Csesars — both  good  and  bad.  Probably  this  is  the 
innate  tendency  and  inevitable  result  of  our  republic, 
with  its  diversified  and  agglomerated  population  and 
ever  widening  territory. 

"But  be  this  as  it  may,  the  common  law  is  the 
source  and  panoply  of  all  those  features  of  our  system 
which  distinguish  us  from  the  subjects  of  absolute 
governments,  ancient  or  modern, — either  by  monarchs 
or  majorities.  It  was  made  by  freemen  for  freemen, 
and  so  long  as  you  think  these  distinctions  between  it 
and  the  civil  law  worth  preserving,  you  should  cherish 
it  in  private  and  exalt  it  in  public." 

In  a  biography  of  Judge  Deady,  contained  in  a 
lately  published  history  of  Portland,  edited  by  the 
editor  of  the  Oregonian,  Mr  Harvey  W.  Scott,  a  resi- 
dent of  Oregon  since  1852,  there  occurs  the  following 
passage : 

"Any  work  professing  to  describe  the  representa- 
tive men  of  the  Pacific  coast,  would  be  very  incom- 


494  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

plete  which  failed  to  present  a  sketch  of  the  life  and 
labors  of  the  distinguished  jurist  whose  name  stands 
at  the  head  of  this  article. 

''Coming  to  Oregon  in  the  flower  of  his  early  man- 
hood, he  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  his  adopted 
state,  and  strengthened  with  her  strength.  His  hand 
and  mind  are  everywhere  seen  in  her  constitution,  her 
laws,  and  her  polity.  Her  material  advancement  has 
been  greatly  promoted  by  his  efforts,  and  his  name  will 
ever  remain  indelibly  impressed  on  her  history." 

Judge  Deady's  career  has  been  essentially  a  judicial 
one,  and  it  was  fortunate  for  Oregon  that  a  man  of  so 
much  native  strength  and  largeness  of  character 

O  O 

should  have  become  so  important  a  factor  in  her 
history  in  the  critical  formative  period.  It  is  easy  for 
the  most  casual  observer  to  see  how  his  strong  person- 
ality has  been  directly  instrumental  in  shaping  the 
career  of  his  adopted  state.  And  while  he  already  is 
seen  to  stand  head  and  shoulders  above  his  contempo- 
raries, there  can  be  no  question  but  that  he  will 
become  more  and  more  prominent  as  the  smaller  men 
of  his  day  fade  away  into  oblivion  with  the  lapse  of 
time.  While  the  judge  is  looked  up  to  and  respected 
by  the  community  generally,  his  preeminent  qualities 
have  enforced  the  same  homage  from  the  legal  fratern- 
ity. It  has  come  to  be  recognized  universally  that  he 
is  a  large  man  in  the  position  he  now  occupies,  and 
there  can  be  no  question  but  that  he  would  be  a  larger 
man  on  the  supreme  bench  of  the  United  States. 

The  safeguards  which  he  has  largely  been  instru- 
mental in  throwing  around  life,  liberty,  and  property, 
have  done  much  to  give  Oregon  its  well  deserved  name 
of  a  law-abiding  community,  and  to  save  her  from  the 
disgrace  of  the  many  infractions  and  overturnings  of 
all  law  which  have  occurred  in  too  many  of  the  newer 
sections  of  the  community.  The  personal  dignity 
which  he  has  always  maintained  on  the  bench,  and 
the  observance  of  the  formalities  of  the  court  which 
he  has  always  insisted  upon,  has  had  its  influence  too, 


MATTHEW   P.  DEADY.  495 

in  deeply  grounding  a  respect  for  law  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people. 

Many  questions  of  the  gravest  importance  have  come 
before  Judge  Deady,  in  the  course  of  his  long  career, 
which  he  has  been  forced  to  study  without  the  help  of 
precedent  and  to  decide  without  the  aid  of  authority. 
But  with  characteristic  courage  and  self-reliance,  he 
has  applied  himself  to  the  solution  of  these  problems, 
and  his  decisions  have  been  based  on  the  soundest 
legal  principles  and  justice.  The  settlement  of  suits 
arising  under  the  donation  land  laws  became  of  the 
gravest  importance,  from  the  magnitude  of  the 
interests  involved  in  the  city  of  Portland  and  else- 
where; but  when  he  rendered  his  decisions  it  placed 
these  questions  permanently  at  rest,  although  in  reach- 
ing his  final  judgment  he  had  to  consider  many  points 
that  came  up  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world  .  New  principles  and  new  laws  also  had  to  be 
considered  by  his  fertile  brain  in  connection  with  the 
grants  of  the  public  domain  to  the  state,  to  railway 
corporations,  and  to  settlers,  under  the  donation, 
preemption,  and  homestead  act,  and  the  right  to  cut 
and  take  timber  therefrom. 

When  political  demagogues,  relying  on  the  popular 
prejudice  against  the  Chinese,  have  undertaken  to 
deprive  them  of  their  treaty  rights  and  the  equal  pro- 
tection of  the  laws,  the  judge,  unmoved  by  partisan 
clamor,  has  enforced  the  law  in  their  favor,  regardless 
of  consequences. 

In  the  spring  of  1886,  a  general  election  being  near 
at  hand,  the  people  calling  themselves  anti-Chinese 
held  meetings  in  various  places  in  Oregon,  and  resolved 
that  the  Chinese  must  go.  Encouraged  and  set  on 
by  these  incendiary  proceedings,  a  midnight  mob 
captured  the  Chinese  working  in  the  woolen  factory  in 
Oregon  city,  and  after  relieving  them  of  their  money, 
sent  them  off  in  a  boat  to  Portland.  Soon  afterward 
Judge  Deady,  in  his  charge  to  the  grand  jury  in  the 
United  States  district  court,  called  their  attention 


496  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

to  this  outrage,  as  a  result  of  which,  a  number  of  the 
guilty  parties  were  indicted  and  arrested.  In  the 
course  of  the  charge  he  said  : 

"  An  evil  spirit  is  abroad  in  the  land,  not  only  here 
but  everywhere.  It  tramples  down  the  law  of  the 
country  and  fosters  riot  and  anarchy.  Now  it  is 
riding  on  the  back  of  labor,  and  the  foolish  Issachar 
couches  down  to  the  burden  and  becomes  its  servant. 

"Lawless  and  irresponsible  associations  of  persons 
are  forming  all  over  the  country,  claiming  the  right  to 
impose  their  opinions  upon  others,  and  to  dictate  for 
whom  they  shall  work,  and  whom  they  shall  hire,  from 
whom  they  shall  buy,  and  to  whom  they  shall  sell, 
and  for  what  price  or  compensation.  In  these  associa- 
tions the  most  audacious  and  unscrupulous  naturally 
come  to  the  front,  and  for  the  time  being  control  their 
conduct.  Freedom,  law,  and  order  are  so  far  sub- 
verted, and  a  tyranny  is  set  up  in  our  midst  most  gross 
and  galling. 

"Nothing  like  it  has  afflicted  the  world  since  the 
middle  ages,  when  the  lawless  barons  and  their  brutal 
followers  desolated  Europe  with  their  private  wars 
and  predatory  raids,  until  the  husbandman  was  driven 
from  his  ravaged  fields,  and  the  artisan  from  his 
pillaged  shop,  and  the  fair  land  became  a  waste. 

"  The  dominant  motive  of  the  movement  is  some 
form  of  selfishness,  and  its  tendency  is  backward  to 
barbarism — the  rule  of  the  strongest,  guided  by  no 
other  or  better  precept  than  this:  'Might  makes 
right.' 

"This  is  not  the  time  nor  place  to  inquire  into  the 
cause  of  this  condition  of  society.  It  may  be  the 
natural  outcome  of  the  modern  political  economy, 
which,  assuming  that  the  conflict  of  private  interests 
will  produce  economic  order  and  right,  has  reduced 
the  relation  between  capital  and  labor  to  the  mere 
matter  of  supply  and  demand,  and  limited  the  duty 
and  obligation  of  the  one  to  the  other,  to  the  pay- 
ment of  the  minimum  of  wa^es  for  the  maximum  of 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY,  497 

labor  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  getting  the  maximum 
of  wages  for  the  minimum  of  labor  on   the  other. 

''But  whatever  the  cause,  I  have  faith  that  the 
teaching  of  experience  and  the  good  sense  and  love 
of  justice  of  the  people  of  Oregon  will  find  a  remedy 
for  the  evil  in  time.  And  in  the  mean  while  it 
behooves  those  of  us  into  whose  hands  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  law  and  the  conservation  of  the  public 
peace  is  confided,  to  do  what  we  can,  wisely  but 
firmly,  to  prevent  this  evil  spirit  from  destroying  the 
material  resources  of  the  country,  and  making  any 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  society,  in  this 
respect,  still  more  difficult  and  doubtful." 

In  his  address  to  the  Pioneers  in  1876,  there  is  a 
happy  mingling  of  history  and  philosophy.  In  con- 
sidering the  comparative  merits  of  the  adverse  claims 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  to  the 
country  known  as  Oregon,  founded  on  discovery,  he 
said  : 

"  From  the  beginning  the  right  to  the  country  was 
to  depend  upon  the  successful  occupation  of  it.  In 
the  race  for  possession  Great  Britain  was  represented 
by  the  fur  companies,  the  United  States  by  the 
eastern  trader  and  missionary,  and  particularly  by  the 
western  farmer  and  woodsman.  The  fur  companies 
desired  to  occupy  the  country  as  a  trapping  ground 
for  the  fur-bearing  animals. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  American  settler  was 
always  animated,  often  it  may  have  been  uncon- 
sciously, with  the  heroic  thought  that  he  was  perma- 
nently engaged  in  reclaiming  the  wilderness- 
building  a  home,  founding  an  American  state,  and 
extending  the  area  of  liberty.  He  had  visions,  how- 
ever dimly  seen,  that  he  was  here  to  do  for  this 
country  what  his  ancestors  had  done  for  savage  Eng- 
land centuries  before — to  plant  a  community  which  in 
due  time  should  grow  and  ripen  into  one  of  the  great 
sisterhood  of  Anglo-American  states,  wherein  the 

C.  B.— II.     32 


498  GOVERNMENT— OREGCX. 

language  of  the  Bible,  Shakespeare,  and  Milton  should 
be  spoken  by  millions  then  unborn,  and  the  law  of 
magna  charta  and  Westminster  hall  be  the  bulwark 
of  liberty  and  the  buttress  of  order  for  generations 
to  come. 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  this  British  army  of  occupation  failed 
to  take  deep  root  in  the  soil  and  hold  the  country  as 
against  the  Oregon  pioneer." 

In  conclusion  and  addressing  the  Pioneers  person- 
ally, he  said  : 

"  Yes,  worthy  Pioneers,  to  you,  whom  heaven  has 
kindly  granted  to  see  this  day,  and  your  absent  but 
not  forgotten  brethren  and  friends,  who  made  a  path- 
way to  the  country  with  their  dust,  or  have  since 
given  their  lives  for  its  defence,  or  fallen  asleep  in  its 
valleys,  are  we  chiefly  indebted  for  this  grand  and 
beneficent  result.  By  your  great  endeavors  an  empire 
in  limits  has  been  added  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States,  and  to-day  the  sun  in  his  journey 
across  the  heavens  shines  down  upon  a  continuous 
union  of  American  states  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  Verily  you  have  your  reward,  and  they 
who  come  after  you  shall  rise  up  and  do  you  honor." 

In  his  interesting  address  on  towns  and  cities, 
delivered  in  1886,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
University  of  Oregon,  he  showed  how  the  failure  of 
municipal  government  in  the  United  States  was 
owing  to  the  prevalence  at  the  polls  of  the  vagrant 
and  non-taxpaying  element.  He  said: 

"  The  drift  of  any  municipal  administration  in 
which  those  who  pay  no  taxes,  collect  and  expend  the 
revenue,  is  to  waste  and  corruption.  For  a  time 
under  favorable  conditions,  this  result  may  be  pre- 
vented or  delayed.  And  now  and  then  the  taxpayers, 
aroused  by  the  exposure  of  some  gross  fraud  or 
extravagance,  may  combine  and  take  the  management 
into  their  own  hands. 

"  But  the  good   effect  of  these   spasms  of  public 


MATTHEW  P.   DEADY.  499 

virtue  are  not  permanent.  The  cause  of  the  evil — 
the  vicious  and  irresponsible  vote — is  left  untouched. 
The  leisure  class,  the  men  who  from  defective  organ- 
ization or  training  are  unfitted  for  or  indisposed  to 
labor  in  the  ordinary  vocations  of  life,  return  to  the 
work,  and  are  soon  battling  away  again,  night  and  day, 
under  and  above  ground,  in  the  press,  the  primaries, 
and  at  the  polls,  for  the  lost  places.  The  busy  people 
go  back  to  their  private  affairs  and  are  soon  absorbed 
in  them,  and  ere  long  things  are  as  they  were  before, 
Each  failure  of  these  occasional  efforts  at  reform1  to 
accomplish  any  abiding  result,  diminishes  the  chance 
of  their  being  repeated.  Men  tire  of  rolling  the 
municipal  stone  up  hill,  only  to  see  it,  as  soon  as 
their  backs  are  turned,  go  down  again.  .  .  . 

"  Learning,  without  honest  and  good  government,  is 
a  mere  whitened  sepulchre.  And  such  government, 
while  our  towns  and  cities,  the  nerve  centers  of  the 
body  politic,  are  under  the  control  of  the  ignorance, 
poverty,  and  vice  that  inhabit  them,  or  of  those  who 
use  and  abuse  them,  is  simply  impossible. 

"  The  danger  is  no  longer  indefinite  or  in  the  dis- 
tance. The  virus  of  municipal  corruption  and  mis- 
management is  steadily  extending  to  the  affairs  of 
state  and  nation.  Political  parties  systematically  use 
the  places  and  pickings  in  municipal  affairs  as  a  sort 
of  feeding  and  training  ground  for  their  workers  and 
strikers  in  general  politics.  From  there,  in  time,  they 
graduate  into  state  and  national  politics,  and  carry 
with  them  the  morals  and  tactics  of  the  well-drilled 
ward  club. 

"  Nothing  can  check  this  movement  but  a  reform  in 
municipal  politics,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by 
eliminating  the  irresponsible  voter  from  municipal 
suffrage.  We  have  seen  that  the  indebtedness  of  the 
towns  and  cities  of  the  United  States  has  increased 
during  the  last  decade,  a  period  of  peace  and  com- 
parative prosperity,  one  hundred  fold.  Probably  the 
greater  portion  of  this  went  to  the  support  of  politics, 


500  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

municipal  bosses,  and  their  henchmen,  for  which  pur- 
pose they  were  primarily,  though  not  professedly, 
incurred. 

"  The  robber  baron  of  the  middle  ages,  with  his 
devoted  and  dangerous  following  of  armed  retainers, 
has  passed  away.  We  only  know  of  them  from  the 
pages  of  history  arid  romance.  Civilization  is  no 
longer  in  danger  from  them.  But  human  nature  is 
much  the  same  under  all  circumstances.  In  our 
large  cities  they  have  reappeared  in  the  form  of  a 
vulgar  and  rapacious  plutocracy  and  an  ignorant  and 
vicious  rabble,  which  together  menace  the  existence 
of  a  republican  form  of  government.  Though  far 
apart  socially,  in  politics,  so  called,  they  are  natural 
and  effective  allies.  With  the  cheaply  purchased 
votes  of  the  latter,  the  gilded  bullies  of  the  former 
rob  the  wealth  and  crush  the  industries  of  the  cities 
as  ruthlessly  as  ever  did  their  lawless,  mail-clad  pro- 
totypes, the  Front  de  Boeufs  and  De  la  Marks  of 
centuries  ago." 

On  November  4,  1873,  in  the  charge  to  the  grand 
jury  of  the  United  States  district  court  of  Oregon, 
upon  the  subject  of  bribery  at  elections,  he  said  : 

"  The  success  of  a  government  based  upon  universal 
suffrage  and  frequent  elections,  pre-supposes  that  the 
elector  will  give  his  vote  upon  considerations  of  pub- 
lic policy,  and  the  fitness  of  the  candidate  for  the 
office  to  be  filled,  and  not  otherwise. 

"  When  this  condition  of  things  ceases  to  be  the 
rule,  and  votes  are  given  or  withheld  by  reason  of 
'  force,  threat,  menace,  intimidation,  bribery,  reward, 
or  offer  or  promise  thereof,'  the  days  of  the  repub- 
lic are  numbered,  and  it  will  not  be  long  ere  it  dies 
in  its  own  stench. 

"A  representative  government,  elected  and  sus- 
tained by  the  free  and  unpurchased  votes  of  honest 
and  intelligent  citizens,  is  probably  the  most  desira- 
ble state  of  civil  society  known  to  man;  while  on  the 
other  hand,  such  a  government,  resting  upon  and 


MATTHEW  P.    DEADY.  501 

reflecting  the  result  of  corrupt  and  dishonest  elec- 
tions, is  an  organized  anarchy,  more  intolerable  and 
unjust  than  any  other.  It  is  the  triumph  of  vice 
over  virtue — the  means  by  which  evil  men  bear 
sway. 

"  The  use  of  money  in  elections,  particularly  in  the 
large  towns  and  cities,  is  fast  becoming  a  dangerous 
evil.  If  not  prevented,  our  elections  will  in  effect 
soon  become  what  the  election  for  an  emperor  was 
in  the  decline  of  Rome — a  sale  of  the  empire  by  the 
mercenaries  of  the  pretorian  guard  to  the  highest 
bidder. 

"The  use  of  money  in  elections,  besides  being  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  radically  wrong  and  corrupt, 
imposes  in  the  end  a  heavy  and  unjust  tax  upon  the 
property  and  industry  of  the  country. 

"  By  one  indirection  or  another,  through  the  acts 
and  influence  of  those  who  are  elected  by  this  money, 
the  public  are  compelled  to  return  it  with  interest — 
often  an  hundred  fold — to  the  persons  who  furnished 

it." 

In  the  fall  of  1864,  the  legislature  of  Oregon  had 
a  resolution  before  it  concerning  General  Russell,  who 
had  served  in  Oregon,  and  just  bravely  met  his  death 
with  Sheridan  in  the  Shenandoah  valley.  The  reso- 
lution was  pitched  in  a  high  key,  and  some  prosy, 
cynical  wags  in  and  out  of  the  house  were  disposed 
to  sneer  and  laugh  it  down.  A.t  the  request  of  the 
mover,  Judge  Deady  dashed  off  an  article  in  support 
of  the  resolution,  the  publication  of  which  checked 
the  opposition  and  secured  its  passage.  It  may  be 
found  at  length  in  Schuck's  Representative  Men  of 
the  Pacific  (107).  As  a  specimen  of  eloquent  off-hand 
composition  we  quote  a  few  lines : 

"  The  resolution,  as  befits  the  occasion,  has  the  ring 
of  the  trumpet,  and  a  touch  of  true  poetic  fire. 
When  a  generous  people  desire  '  to  honor  the  patriot 
dead,'  or  'to  encourage  their  gallant  living/  their 


502  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

language  should  rise  above  the  prosy  platitudes  of  a 
constable's  writ  or  an  inventory  of  goods  and  chattels. 

"If  you  would  have  men  die  for  their  country, 
remember  those  who  thus  die.  Let  the  memorial 
of  the  brave  departed  be  such  as  to  warm  the  hearts 
and  elevate  the  aspirations  of  those  who  come  after 
them.  The  dream  of  obtaining  a  monument  among 
the  illustrious  dead  of  Westminster  abbey  has  done 
more  to  maintain  the  dominion,  prowess,  and  prosper- 
ity of  England,  than  all  the  gold  of  her  commerce, 
twice  told  and  repeated. 

"  Thus  Rome  deified  her  dead  and  inspired  the 
living,  until,  with 

brave  Horatius, 

The  captain  of  the  gate, 

a  Roman  was  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  himself  for  his 
country,  exclaiming  : 

Ho',v  can  a  man  die  better 

Than  by  facing  fearful  odds, 
For  the  ashes  of  his  fathers, 

And  the  temples  of  his  Gods  ? 

In  the  course  of  a  fourth  of  July  oration,  delivered 
at  Portland  in  1885,  he  paid  the  following  tribute 
to  Washington  and  Hamilton : 

"  The  records  of  Hamilton's  labors  and  achievements 
will  ever  remain  a  monument  of  his  comprehensive 
patriotism,  his  freedom  from  sectional  prejudices,  and 
his  matchless  ability  as  a  statesman  and  jurist.  No 
celebration  of  this  day,  no  commemoration  of  these 
events,  is  just  or  complete  without  the  grateful  men- 
tion and  remembrance  of  these  two  names,  Washing- 
ton and  Hamilton,  the  two  men  who,  more  than  any 
others,  not  only  achieved  the  independence  of  the 
colonies,  but  saved  them  from  subsequent  anarchy 
and  discord — gave  them  a  constitutional  and  free  gov- 
ernment, equal  to  the  exigencies  of  peace  or  war, 
and  made  them  in  fact  as  well  as  name,  the  United 
States  of  America,  one  and  indivisible,  let  us  hope, 
now  and  forever." 


MATTHEW   P.    DEADY.  503, 

And  in  an  address  delivered  at  the  same  place  on 
the  centennial  of  Washington's  inauguration,  he  said: 

"  I  have  thus  endeavored  in  the  short  time  at  my 
disposal,  to  give  an  estimate  of  Washington  as  a 
soldier,  statesman,  and  patriot,  derived  from  his 
acts  and  declarations,  and  the  opinions  of  those 
best  qualified  to  speak  of  him.  He  is,  in  my  judg- 
ment, by  far  the  grandest  figure  in  American  his- 
tory ;  and  I  doubt  if  he  has  a  superior  in  the  mod- 
ern world.  Other  men  may  have  exceeded  him  in 
some  particular,  but  in  the  general  average,  none. 
He  was  an  all  around,  well  balanced,  great  man, 
equal  to  any  emergency  and  capable  of  rising  to  any 
occasion. 

"  His  name  is  inscribed  high  up. on  the  roll  of  the 
few  great  worthies  of  the  world,  never  to  be  dimmed 
or  displaced. 

The  winged  years,  that  winnow  praise  and  blame, 
Blow  many  names  out;  they  but  fan  to  flame 
The  self-renewing  splendors  of  his  name. 

"  Few  of  us  stop  to  think,  or  are  even  aware,  of  the 
incalculable  benefit  to  this  or  any  people,  of  having 
such  a  life  woven  into  their  early  history,  as  an 
example  and  incentive  to  good  and  noble  deeds,  from 
pure  and  exalted  motives,  in  both  public  and  private 
life. 

On  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Waite,  in  response 
to  resolutions  by  the  bar  of  the  United  States  circuit 
court,  Judge  Deady  said  : 

"  The  death  of  the  chief  justice  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  United  States  is  felt  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  A  vacancy  in  this 
exalted  tribunal  affects  the  interest  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. A  century  ago,  the  men  who  achieved  the 
independence  of  the  colonies,  assembled  in  Philadel- 
phia, with  George  Washington  at  their  head,  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  a  new  government,  whereby  the 
liberty  and  independence  won  by  their  swords  might 
be  defined  and  preserved  by  the  authority  and  sanction 


504  GOVERNMENT- OREGON. 

of  law.  As  an  essential  part  of  this  political  fabric  they 
provided  for  a  supreme  court  with  power  to  act  as 
a  final  arbiter  between  the  '  New  Nation '  and  its 
constituent  parts — the  several  states  and  the  people 
thereof. 

1  'Fresh  from  the  learning  and  example  of  the  great 
lawyers  and  statesmen  of  the  convention  parliament, 
who  a  century  before  under  the  lead  of  Somers  had 
secured  to  Great  Britain  a  judiciary  whose  tenure  of 
office  no  longer  depended  on  the  interest  or  caprice 
of  the  crown,  they  placed  this  court  of  final  resort 
above  the  vicissitudes  of  party  and  the  clamor  of  fac- 
tion, by  providing  in  the  constitution  for  the  inde- 
pendence and  permanency  of  its  judges.  And  the 
result  has  verified  their  expectations  and  shown  the 
wisdom  of  their  actions.  The  court  has  proven  itself 
the  keystone  of  the  arch  which  binds  the  union 
together — the  very  acropolis  of  the  constitution." 

In  a  Fourth  of  July  address  delivered  at  Van- 
couver in  1889,  he  said: 

"In  the  constitution  of  Washington,  by  all  means 
make  the  term  of  the  judicial  officer  not  less  than  ten 
years,  and  the  salary  not  less  than  $5,000,  and  we 
may  be  shamed  into  following  your  good  example. 
A  learned,  honest,  and  independent  judiciary  is  the 
corner-stone  of  a  good  social  fabric.  But  ordinarily 
a  judge  cannot  be  honest  who  is  not  independent,  and 
the  judge  is  not  independent  who  is  needy,  or  who,  on 
account  of  the  shortness  of  his  term,  is  tempted  to 
look  around  and  count  heads,  before  he  is  warm  in 
his  seat,  with  a  view  to  reelection.  Limit  the  suf- 
frage to  citizens  of  the  United  States.  There  are 
plenty  of  people  in  the  country  to  do  the  voting 
without  including  unnaturalized  foreigners  in  the 
list,  who  have  simply  declared  their  intentions  and 
may  never  go  any  farther.  Provide  that  a  majority 
of  a  jury  may  find  a  verdict  in  all  cases,  or  at  least 
do  not  tie  the  hands  of  the  legislature  so  that  it  can- 


MATTHEW   P.    DEADY.  505 

not  be  done  hereafter.  This  is  a  very  important 
matter.  The  constitution  of  the  jury  must  be 
reformed  in  this  particular,  if  this  institution  is  not 
to  become  an  impediment  to  the  administration  of 
justice.  All  those  who  thrive  by  the  defence  of 
criminals,  and  consider  a  hung  jury,  even  if  by  one 
to  eleven,  next  thing  to  an  acquittal,  will  be  found 
generally  opposing  this  reform.  It  could  have  no 
better  commendation  to  the  people  at  large." 

In  responding  to  the  toast,  The  State  of  Oregon, 
at  the  Queen's  birthday  dinner,  in  Portland,  1886,  he 
said : 

"Oregon  did  not  grow  up  leaning  on  the  arm  of 
an  elder  sister,  or  become  organized  as  an  annex  to  a 
neighboring  state,  like  the  members  of  the  union 
north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  river.  It  was  not  formed 
by  the  mere  gradual  and  unpremeditated  overflow  of 
population  from  one  degree  of  longitude  to  another, 
as  oil  spreads  over  paper.  But,  like  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts  and  other  colonies  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  founded  two  centuries  earlier,  it  was  from 
the  beginning  a  distinct  and  separate  settlement  of 
self-governing  and  directing  people.  The  pioneers  of 
the  Pacific,  like  those  of  the  Atlantic,  were  separated 
from  their  point  of  migration  by  thousands  of  miles 
of  trackless  waste. 

"  Indeed,  the  state  of  Oregon  was  more  autono- 
mous in  its  origin  and  early  growth  than  any  state 
within  the  limits  of  the  union.  The  Atlantic 
colonies,  save  perhaps  the  small  matter  of  the  Ply- 
mouth rock  congregation,  who  were  soon  absorbed  in 
the  Massachusetts  bay  colony,  were  planted  and 
watered  by  some  powerful  company  or  proprietor  in 
England,  and  largely  directed  and  aided  thereby. 

"  But  the  Oregon  colony  was  emphatically  a  popu- 
lar, political  movement,  conducted  by  private  persons 
without  any  recognized  head  or  concerted  plan.  It 
was  really  one  of  those  singular  movements  of  the 


506  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

human  race  in  which  numbers  of  people,  without  pre- 
concert or  purpose,  are  moved  by  some  common  con- 
trolling impulse,  to  transplant  themselves  to  some 
unknown  and  remote  region  ;  and  having  done  so 
proceed  at  once,  as  by  a  political  habit  or  instinct,  to 
unite  together  in  a  civil  society  and  found  a  state, 
upon  whose  escutcheon  they  did  and  might  well 
inscribe,  Alis  volat  propriis. 

In  responding  to  the  toast — The  United  States— 
on  a  similar  occasion  in  1884,  he  said  : 

"Go  back  with  me,  if  you  will,  to  the  period 
between  the  13th  and  17th  centuries,  the  most  fruitful 
period  in  the  world's  history.  Europe  had  awakened 
from  the  deep  sleep  or  long  incubation  of  the  middle 
ages.  The  first  important  event  was  the  invention  of 
gunpowder.  Then  the  weapon  of  warfare  was  changed 
from  the  sword  and  spear  of  the  mailed  knight  to 
the  firelock  of  the  common  soldier.  Next  followed 
the  art  of  printing,  by  which  the  thought  of  the  few 
was  diffused  throughout  the  world,  and  made  the  prop- 
erty of  the  many.  This  was  naturally  followed  b^y  the 
revival  of  learning  ;  and  then  came  the  natural  climax 
and  crown  of  the  movement — the  Reformation. 
Then  thought  was  made  free,  and  man  was  permitted 
to  think  for  himself.  Society  was  stirred  to  its  inmost 
depths.  Old  customs  were  overthrown,  and  old  ideas 
were  everywhere  confronted  and  assailed  by  new. 

"  It  seems  providential  that  just  at  this  time  a  new 
world  should  be  discovered,  which  afforded  a  refuge 
and  elbow  room  for  all  the  new  thoughts  and  eccen- 
tricities of  the  old  world.  At  the  very  moment  of 
this  seething  turmoil  and  intellectual  ferment,  which 
poets  and  painters  are  pleased  to  call  the  renaissance, 
the  new  world  was  prepared  for  this  European  over- 
flow, which  came  in  groups  and  settlements  of  pil- 
grims, independents,  puritans,  baptists,  episcopalians, 
quakers,  Roman  catholics,  presbyterians,  Lutherans, 
and  Moravians,  together  with  many  shades  of  political 
opinion,  out  of  which  there  came  in  due  time  the 


MATTHEW  P.  DEADY.  507 

United  States,  the  free  American  citizen,  and  religious 
toleration." 

On  December  7,  1883,  Judge  Deady  published  an 
article  in  the  Morning  Oregonian,  which  is  preserved 
in  the  transactions  of  the  Pioneer  Association  of  that 
year.  In  the  course  of  it  occurs  the  following  ac- 
count of  the  preliminary  peace  talk  between  the 
Rogue  river  Indians  and  the  whites,  on  Sunday, 
September  4,  1853,  soon  after  the  battle  of  Evans 
or  Battle  creek,  on  the  north  side  of  Rogue  river, 
which  ended  in  a  truce  between  the  two  leaders — 
Indian  Joseph  and  Joseph  Lane. 

"The  scene  of  the  famous  *  peace  talk'  between 
Joseph  Lane  and  Indian  Joseph — the  two  men  who 
had  so  lately  met  in  mortal  combat — was  worthy  of 
the  pen  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  the  pencil  of  Sal- 
vator  Rosa.  It  was  on  a  narrow  bench  of  a  lono\ 

O  ~ 

gently  sloping  hill  lying  over  against  the  noted  bluff 
called  Table  rock.  The  ground  was  thinly  covered 
with  majestic  old  pines  and  rugged  oaks,  with  here 
and  there  a  clump  of  green  oak  bushes.  About  a 
half  mile  above  the  bright  mountain  stream  that 
threaded  the  narrow  vaTley  below  sat  the  two  chiefs 
in  council.  Lane  was  in  fatigue  dress,  the  arm  which 
was  wounded  at  Buena  Vista  being  in  a  sling,  from 
the  effects  of  a  fresh  wound  received  at  Battle  creek. 
Indian  Joseph,  tall,  grave,  and  self-possessed,  wore  a 
long  black  robe  or  cassock  over  his  ordinary  dress. 
By  his  side  sat  Mary,  his  favorite  child  and  faithful 
companion,  then  a  comparatively  handsome  young 
woman,  as  yet  unstained  with  the  vices  of  civiliza- 
tion. Around  these  sat  on  the  grass  Captain  A.  J. 
Smith,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Port  Orford  with 
his  company  of  the  first  dragoons,  Captain  Alvord, 
then  engaged  in  the  construction  of  a  military  road 
through  the  Umpqua  canon,  and  since  paymaster- 
general  of  the  U.  S.  A.,  Colonel  Bill  Martin  of 
Umpqua,  Colonel  John  E.  Ross,  of  Jacksonville, 


508  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

Captain  now  General  John  F.  Miller,  myself,  and  a 
few  others. 

"  A  short  distance  above  us  on  the  hillside  were 
some  hundreds  of  dusky  warriors  in  fighting  gear, 
reclining  quietly  on  the  ground.  The  day  was  beau- 
tiful. To  the  east  of  us  rose  abruptly  Table  rock, 
and  at  its  base  stood  Smith's  dragoons,  waiting  anx- 
iously with  hand  on  horse  the  issue  of  this  attempt 
to  make  peace  without  their  aid.  After  a  proposition 
was  discussed  between  the  two  chiefs,  the  Indian 
would  rise  up  and  communicate  the  matter  to  a  huge 
warrior,  who  reclined,  unclad,  at  the  foot  of  a  tree 
quite  near  us.  Then  the  latter  rose  up  and  commu- 
nicated the  result  to  the  host  above  him,  and  they 
belabored  it  back  and  forth  with  many  voices.  Then 
the  warrior  transmitted  the  thought  of  the  multitude 
back  to  his  chief,  and  so  the  discussion  went  on,  un- 
til an  understanding  was  finally  reached.  Then  we 
separated,  the  Indians  going  back  to  their  mountain 
retreat,  and  the  whites  to  their  camp  on  the  river. 

"  That  evening  I  rode  up  to  Jacksonville,  through 
what  I  thought  was  the  most  picturesque  valley  I 
ever  saw.  The  next  morning  I  opened  in  due  form, 
the  United  States  district  court  for  the  county  of 
Jackson  —  the  first  court  that  was  ever  held  in  Ore- 
gon south  of  the  TJmpqua — and  the  mandate  of  the 
law  superseded  the  stroke  of  the  sword." 

The  spirit  of  justice,  which  is  the  foundation  of 
all  law  worthy  of  the  name,  pervades  Judge  Deady's 
work.  Although  well  acquainted  with  forms  and  pre- 
cedents from  the  early  days  of  the  common  law,  he 
never  willingly  sacrifices  justice  to  either,  nor  con- 
founds the  kernel  of  truth  with  the  husk  of  appear- 
ance. 

Yet  he  does  not  assume  the  right  to  disregard  a 
settled  rule  of  law,  to  placate  a  public  opinion  wThich 
for  the  time  being  is  arrayed  against  its  enforcement 
in  a  particular  case. 


MATTHEW  P.    DEADY.  509 

Knowing  this,  litigants  and  attorneys  who  rely  on 
the  law,  are  always  anxious  to  get  their  cases  before 
him,  where  they  are  sure  of  a  decision,  the  result  of 
industry,  learning,  integrity,  and  judgment.  Such  a 
standing  and  reputation  has  only  been  attained  by 
continuous  and  devoted  labor,  which  his  iron  constitu- 
tion has  enabled  him  to  endure  in  the  last  thirty  and 
more  years.  The  reports  are  full  of  his  decisions 
that  are  of  permanent  general  value — especially  to 
the  jurisprudence  of  the  Pacific  coast. 

It  is  one  of  the  admirable  characteristics  of  Judge 
Deady  that  he  always  tries  to  keep  himself  in  touch 
with  the  people.  He  makes  time  to  mingle  with 
them,  notwithstanding  the  great  and  unremitting 
pressure  of  his  judicial  duties.  He  goes  out  into 
the  country  or  visits  the  seaside  at  least  once  a  year. 
Thus  he  keeps  abreast  and  in  full  sympathy  with  the 
current  thought,  and  is  able  to  judge  of  the  force  of 
any  turn  of  public  opinion,  and  to  see  how  deep  or 
shallow  any  prejudice  may  be.  By  this  habit  of  life 
he  has  gained  a  vast  fund  of  practical  knowledge, 
and  lias  made  a  very  wide  circle  of  acquaintances  in 
all  walks  of  life.  He  has  become  familiar  with  all 
the  professions.  He  knows  the  life  of  the  farmer, 
and  understands  the  tools  of  the  mechanic.  If  in 
any  case  a  point  comes  up  in  regard  to  some  mechani- 
cal device  about  which  he  is  in  doubt,  he  has  the 
machine  brought  into  court,  or  will  go  to  the  pains 
of  visiting  the  shop  where  it  may  be.  More  than 
this,  he  will,  if  necessary,  make  a  considerable  journey 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  some  particular  gear- 
ing or  machinery  in  operation.  Thus  he  has  become 
almost  an  expert  on  a  vast  number  of  practical  sub- 
jects, and  has  accumulated  a  great  store  of  practical 
knowledge  which  can  scarcely  be  equalled. 

One  quality  that  pervades  all  his  decisions  is  his 
great  moral  courage  ;  indeed  his  native  strength  in 
this  is  so  great  that  he  seems  unconscious  at  times 
that  he  is  moving  directly  counter  to  the  general 


510  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

prejudices  of  the  hour.  No  fear  of  popular  resent- 
ment has  ever  bent  him  from  the  direct  line  of  justice, 
and  no  allurements  have  been  strong  enough  to  cajole 
him  into  doing  anything  of  which  his  conscience  did 
not  approve.  He  is  ever  ready  to  protect  the  poor 
and  helpless  against  the  encroachments  of  a  powerful 
corporation,  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  a  corporation 
is  sure  of  receiving  full  justice  from  him.  .  It  wrould 
seem  as  though  the  judge  had  taken  well  to  heart 
the  wisdom  of  Plato,  and  that  he  has  planted  in  the 
valleys  and  mountains  of  Oregon  that  love  of  law, 
that  supreme  insight  into  the  all  importance  of  the 
state,  and  that  devotion  to  truth  which  are  the 
marked  characteristics  of  the  greatest  of  Grecian 
philosophers.  And  that  he  impressed  these  great 
truths  upon  the  young  commonwealth  by  the  force  of 
manly  example  and  timely  precept  is  one  of  the  most 
fortunate  circumstances  in  the  history  of  Oregon. 

Although  Judge  Deady's  great  life-work  has  been 
done  upon  the  bench,  he  is  too  large  a  man,  and  his 
interest  in  the  true  welfare  of  the  community  is  too 
deep-seated,  to  permit  him  to  confine  himself  exclu- 
sively to  the  calling  that  he  graces  so  well.  His  sym- 
pathies are  with  every  movement  that  tends  to  the 
improvement  of  the  community  as  a  whole.  Thus  it 
came  perfectly  natural  to  him  to  give  active  assistance 
to  the  organization  of  the  Library  Association  of  Port- 
land in  1864,  and  that  institution  to-day, — standing  as 
it  does,  as  one  of  the  best  organized  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  owes  much  of  its  usefulness  to  the  pains  which 
he  has  taken  with  it.  Its  management  from  the  first 
has  been  beyond  criticism.  He  has  been  its  acting 
president  for  over  twenty  years,  and  has  solicited  and 
obtained  most  of  the  funds  that  go  to  make  up  its 
endowment  of  nearly  $150,000.  A  large  portion  of 
the  books  upon  the  shelves  were  selected  by  him,  and 
one  can  imagine  how  congenial  such  a  task  as  this 
must  be  to  a  man  of  his  cultivated  and  scholarly 
tastes.  Regularly  on  Saturday  afternoon  of  each 


MATTHEW  P.    DEADY.  511 

week  he  may  be  seen  in  the  library  rooms,  in  consul- 
tation with  Mr  Oxer,  the  librarian,  concerning  the 
condition  of  the  institution,  giving  directions  and  mak- 
ing suggestions  concerning  the  purchase  of  new  books, 
and  the  like ;  so  that  if  he  is  wanted  for  any  purpose, 
between  2  and  4  P.  M.  of  that  day,  people  go  to  the 
library  rooms  to  find  him. 

The  cause  of  higher  education  has  found  in  Judge 
Deady  an  earnest  and  judicious  advocate.  In  1876 
he  was  appointed  a  regent  of  the  university  of 
Oregon,  which  had  just  then  been  located  at  Eugene. 
He  has  served  in  this  capacity,  and  also  as  president 
of  the  board  ever  since.  Several  commencement 
addresses  have  been  delivered  by  him,  and  the  reader 
of  these  is  struck  at  once  by  the  breadth  of  wisdom, 
the  depth  of  learning,  and  the  thorough  familiarity 
with  all  the  leading  authors  which  they  present. 
Addresses  so  polished  and  learned  could  not  fail  to 
have  a  great  and  beneficial  influence  on  the  young 
graduates.  The  pearls  of  Montaigne,  Middleton,  and 
Burke  glisten  and  shine  on  the  thread  of  his  discourse 
along  with  the  gems  of  Bacon,  Franklin,  and  Dr  John- 
son. Yet  he  did  not  hesitate  to  give  a  touch  of  crit- 
icism, when  it  seemed  necessary,  to  point  his  hearers 
to  the  highest  standard.  "  The  aim  of  the  scholar," 
he  says,  "  should  be  far  above  that  of  the  low  utili- 
tarian philosophy  of  Franklin,  which  has  borne  its 
legitimate  fruit  in  the  worship  of  the  creature 
instead  of  the  creator,  and  the  substitution  of  the 
sensual  test — Will  it  pay  ?  for  the  spiritual  one — Is  it 
right  ?  We  should  remember  that  it  is  better  to 
know  the  meaning  of  the  stars  than  to  be  able  to 
count  them — that  it  is  of  more  importance  to  be  able 
to  answer  the  old  and  ever  recurring  question — Quid 
est  veritasf — than  to  have  invented  a  sauce  or  jumping- 
jack,  or  discovered  a  mine  or  the  source  of  the  Nile. 
True  greatness  is  more  or  less  moral,  and  is  only 
reached  by  living  under  the  constant  influence  of  a 
lofty  ideal,  even  though  it  may  never  be  realized." 


512  GOVERNMENT— OREGON". 

Whether  with  light  and  graceful  fancy  he  dis- 
coursed to  the  students  on  the  subject  of  manners, 
reminding  them  that  William  of  Wykeham,  lord 
chancellor  of  England,  chose  for  his  motto  :  "  Man- 
ners maketh  Man,"  and  that  Middleton  said  :  "Virtue 
itself  offends  when  coupled  with  forbidding  manners," 
or  showed  with  reason  and  logic  that  the  higher  aim 
of  life  is  to  be,  rather  than  to  have,  or  discussed  the 
practical  problem  of  municipal  government,  his  words 
were  weighted  with  wisdom  and  strong  common  sense. 

Judge  Deady  has  not  striven  for  distinction  in  the 
field  of  oratory.  His  position  on  the  bench  has  pre- 
cluded it.  But  with  his  poetic  fancy  and  love  of  the 
sublime  and  beautiful,  in  nature  and  art,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  had  he  remained  at  the  bar  he  would 
have  been  distinguished  as  a  public  speaker. 

His  addresses  and  lectures  are  not  the  flimsy  pro- 
ductions that  depend  for  their  success  upon  the  tran- 
sient enthusiasm  of  the  moment  of  delivery  ;  their 
value  and  importance  lie  in  the  great  truths,  forcibly 
and  aptly  told,  which  they  bring  home  to  the  audi- 
tors. Like  the  great  classic  orations,  they  are  best 
understood  and  most  highly  prized  after  they  have 
been  quietly  read  and  thought  upon.  The  wide 
knowledge  of  history,  the  deep  and  philosophical 
insight  into  political  growth  and  organization,  and  the 
clear  perception  of  the  needs  of  society  make  them  a 
rich  mine.  The  quality  that  most  impresses  one  is 
the  broad  comprehensiveness  with  which  he  takes 
up  his  subject.  His  view  covers  the  entire  field, 
and  he  brings  out  in  true  proportion  the  essential  facts 
which  enter  into  the  subject  that  he  is  speaking 
upon.  And  thus  it  is,  that  his  words  sink  into  the 
memory  and  abide  there,  as  did  the  address  of  Lin- 
coln at  Gettysburg,  which  completely  overshadowed 
the  brilliant  effort  of  William  Everett. 

Judge  Deady  grew  up  a  democrat.  He  first  took 
an  interest  in  politics  in  favor  o£  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  in  1844.  He  says: 


MATTHEW  P.    DEADY.  513 

"  By  the  time  I  was  thirty  years  of  age  I  had  pretty 
thoroughly  studied  the  constitution  and  political  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  for  myself.  Among  others 
I  had  read  Jefferson's  Works,  Webster's  and  Calhoun's 
speeches,  Washington's  messages,  and  Hamilton's 
reports,  the  report  of  Burr's  trial  and  Chase's  impeach- 
ment, and  Marshal's  life  of  Washington,  and  became 
on  general  principles,  what  might  be  called  a  feder- 
alist— a  believer  in  the  doctrine  that  the  constitution 
created  a  government  for  a  nation,  supreme  in  its 
sphere,  and  the  ultimate  judge  of  its  own  powers,  and 
not  a  mere  compact  between  independent  or  sovereign 
states  to  be  terminated  at  the  will  and  pleasure  of 
either  of  them.  And  therefore,  when  the  southern 
states  undertook  to  withdraw  from  the  union,  I  con- 
sidered they  were  engaged  in  a  rebellion  against  the 
lawful  authority  of  the  national  government,  which 
the  latter  had  a  right  to  suppress  by  any  of  the 
means  known  to  civilized  warfare.  And  this,  not- 
withstanding my  sympathies  had  been  with  the 
southern  people  on  account  of  the  unfriendly,  irritat- 
ing, and  ceaseless  attacks  by  many  northern  people 
and  some  states  on  the  composition  of  southern 
society,  and  particularly  negro  slavery. 

"  Since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  I  have  gen- 
erally acted  with  the  republican  party,  as  the  one  that 
best  represented  my  idea  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
national  government,  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments, a  sound  currency,  the  payment  of  the  national 
debt  in  gold  coin,  the  reform  of  the  civil  service,  the 
supremacy  of  the  law,  and  the  restraint  and  subordi- 
nation, as  far  as  practicable,  of  the  vices  and  dangerous 
pursuits  of  society,  to  the  well-being  thereof.  In  the 
case  of  administrative  officers,  I  generally  vote  for  the 
best  man  and  I  might  be  called  something  of  a  mug- 
wump." 

Judge  Deady's  parents  were  Roman  catholics,  and 
he  was  nurtured  in  that  faith  when  young.  After 
leaving  home  in  1841,  he  became  acquainted  with 
protestant  ideas  and  forms  of  worship,  and  learned  to 

C.  B.— II.     33 


514  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

think  for  himself.  His  professional  and  general  read- 
ing predisposed  him  to  English  precedents  in  politics 
and  religion.  Mrs  Deady,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
reared  a  presbyterian.  On  going  to  Portland  to  live 
they  took  refuge  in  the  episcopal  church,  of  which  the 
judge  has  been  a  vestryman  for  many  years.  He 
has  also  taken  an  interest  in  the  charitable  and  edu- 
cational institutions,  in  Portland,  under  the  control  of 
that  church,  such  as  the  Good  Samaritan  hospital,  the 
Bishop  Scott  academy,  and  St  Helen's  hall. 

Besides  a  great  number  of  oral  judgments,  and  trial 
of  cases  involving  large  amounts,  or  grave  criminal 
charges,  Judge  Deady  has  written  about  350  opinions 
since  his  advent  of  the  bench,  involving  many  import- 
ant and  interesting  questions  affecting  the  rule  of  the 
common  law,  or  the  proper  construction  of  the  state 
and  federal  statutes  and  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  the  state.  These  opinions  are  recorded  in 
Deady  s  Reports  and  Sawyer's  Reports,  from  volume  1 
to  volume  14  inclusive. 

His  personal  appearance  is  portrayed  in  the  follow- 
ing description  given  by  one  well  qualified  to  do  so  : 

"  Judge  Deady  has  a  fine  physical  presence,  so  that 
he  fills  the  eye,  as  one  fitted  to  pronounce  and  to 
enforce.  Time,  in  whitening  his  once  auburn  beard 
and  the  locks  that  curl  about  his  head,  has  added  the 
external  suggestions  of  the  sage.  Six  feet  two  inches 
in  height,  and  weighing  about  two  hundred  and  thirty 
pounds,  he  is  in  due  proportion,  and  looks  neither 
too  heavy  nor  too  slim.  His  eyes  are  bluish-gray, 
with  a  twinkle  at  the  corners  which  betrays  amuse- 
ment, even  at  times  when  in  deference  to  judicial 
dignity  the  face  remains  impassive — a  noble  face, 
capable  of  quickly  passing  from  this  expression  to  a 
frown  of  the  brow  and  an  angry  light  in  the  eyes. 
His  brow  is  broad  and  massive ;  the  back  of  the 
head  broader,  and  well  rounded.  To  speak  by  the 
hatter,  he  has  a  7^  head.  The  nose  is  rather  promi- 
nent, straight  and  well  bridged,  neither  bony  nor 


MATTHEW  P.    DEADY.  515 

fleshy.  A  strong  mouth,  rather  large,  and  sugges- 
tive of  that  sensuous  (not  sensual)  quality  almost 
invariably  accompanying  good  intellectual  power,— 
i.  e.,  an  appreciation  of  the  things  of  the  senses, 
whether  a  picture,  a  beauty,  or  a  fat  capon  and  a 
bottle  of  burgundy.  His  hands  and  feet  are  rather 
small  for  his  size  and  weight,  but,  in  common  with 
the  rest  of  his  frame,  suggesting  bodily  power.  As 
he  rises  from  the  surf  in  his  favorite  pastime  of  sea- 
bathing, with  dripping  locks  and  beard,  and  great 
proportions,  he  suggests  the  Neptune  of  the  Greek 
coins  and  gems.  And,  passing  from  his  mere  bodily 
appearance  to  a  better  characteristic,  in  connection 
with  his  office  and  his  nature,  it  may  be  said  he  has  a 
kindly  sympathy  with  every  }roung  and  struggling 
lawyer  ;  and  to  each  he  extends  what  aid  he  can  by 
instruction,  advice,  and  that  more  positive  assistance 
which  lies  within  his  power  to  distribute  from  time  to 
time." 

In  conclusion  we  heartily  adopt  the  saying  of  his 
biographer  in  the  History  of  Portland  : 

"His  aims  are  noble  and  his  methods  just." 


CHAPTER  XX. 

GOVERNMENT  AFFAIRS  IN  OREGON. 

RELIGIOUS  SECTS  AS  COLONISTS — METHODISTS,  PRESBYTERIANS,  AND  CATH- 
OLICS—  JOHN  McLouoHLiN  AND  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY — THE 
BOUNDARY  QUESTION— MISSIONARIES  AS  MERCHANTS— LAND  CLAIMS- 
INDIAN  TROUBLES — MILITARY  MATTERS— PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT — 
POLITICS— JUDICIAL  AFFAIRS — OREGON  AS  A  TERRITORY  AND  AS  A 
STATE — PROMINENT  OFFICIALS. 

PIETY,  patriotism,  and  jealousy,  presently  blending 
and  bowing  before  avarice,  were  the  primary  factors 
in  the  colonization  and  occupation  of  the  Oregon 
country  south  of  the  49th  parallel.  The  piety  was, 
for  the  most  part,  of  the  rnethodist  persuasion,  in- 
tent on  converting  the  savages  to  the  same  thinking; 
the  patriotism  and  jealousy  took  the  form  of  a  strong 
desire  for  the  Americanization  of  Oregon,  so  that  the 
English  might  not  get  control  of  the  country;  the 
avarice  was  of  a  somewhat  mild  form,  being  simply  a 
greater  desire  for  lands  and  other  temporal  benefits 
than  for  purely  spiritual  blessings. 

Following  the  trading  adventures  to  Oregon  of 
Kelley  and  Wyeth,  came  four  Flathead  chiefs  to  St. 
Louis,  asking  for  missionaries  to  their  benighted  land. 
Two  personages  presently  appeared  before  the  metho- 
dist  board  and  offered  their  services.  They  were 
Jason  Lee  and  his  nephew  Daniel  Lee,  the  former 
having  been  engaged  in  similar  labors  in  the  British 
provinces.  Their  offer  was  accepted;  and  Jason, 
made  a  member  of  the  rnethodist  conference,  was 
ordained  an  elder.  This  was  in  1833. 

(516) 


JASON  LEE.  517 

Jason  Lee  was  from  Stanstead,  Canada,  and  at  that 
time  about  thirty  vears  of  asfe.  He  was  tall  and 

t/       t/  O 

powerfully  built,  with  an  iron  constitution  and  un- 
blemished manhood.  Sincere  and  sound  in  his  prin- 
ciples after  the  manner  of  his  enlightenment;  frank 
and  affable  in  his  intercourse  with  men,  he  inspired 
respect  and  grew  in  the  confidence  of  his  associates. 
If  he  lacked  somewhat  in  refinement,  it  may  be  said 
that  his  brusque  straight-forwardness  was  but  simple 
honesty,  unalloyed  with  clerical  cant. 

His  nephew  was  not  cast  in  the  same  mould.  Thin 
and  bony  in  form,  he  presented  a  strong  contrast  to 
the  powerful  frame  of  Jason,  while  in  mental  capabili- 
ties a  corresponding  difference  existed  between  them. 
Though  a  man  in  stature,  Daniel  was  a  child  in  mind 
and  manners  ;  but  of  his  lack  of  knowledge,  especially 
that  of  the  world,  he  lived  in  happy  unconsciousness. 

On  October  10,  1833,  a  missionary  meeting  was  held 
in  New  York  to  arrange  for  the  early  departure  of  the 
volunteers,  and  by  the  end  of  November  everything 
was  in  readiness,  $3,000  having  been  voted  by  the 
board  to  defray  the  expenses  of  their  outfit.  At  this 
juncture  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth  arrived  at  Boston,  having 
returned  from  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  establish  a 
trading-post  on  the  Columbia  river.  Wyeth  was  of 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts — an  enterprising  young 
man  of  ardent  temperament,  who,  excited  by  the 
writings  of  Hall  J.  Kelley,  conceived  the  design  of 
journeying  overland  and  planting  an  American  colony 
in  Oregon. 

Leaving  New  York  in  March  1834,  the  Lees  pro- 
ceeded westward,  accompanied  by  three  associates — 
Cyrus  Shephard  of  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  Philip  L. 
Edwards,  a  native  of  Kentucky,  and  Courtney  M. 
Walker  of  Richmond,  Missouri,  who  had  been  en- 
gaged to  assist  for  one  year  in  founding  the  mission. 
At  Independence,  their  rendezvous,  they  found 
Wyeth,  and  on  April  28th  the  expedition,  numbering 
in  all  seventy  men,  started  on  its  journey.  On  Sep- 


518  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

tember  16th  the  missionary  party  arrived  at  Fort 
Vancouver,  Jason  Lee  having  gone  in  advance  of  the 
others. 

The  initiatory  steps  toward  settlement  had  already 
been  taken  in  the  Willamette  valley  by  French 
Canadians,  who,  when  the  terms  of  their  contracts 
with  the  Hudson's  Bay  company  had  expired,  were 
allowed  to  settle  on  the  choice  lands  of  the  valley, 
and  thither  went  the  Lees.  The  place  was  known  as 
French  prairie,  a  lovely  region,  whose  grassy  mead- 
ows were  watered  by  numerous  streams,  and  dotted 
with  groves  of  oak  and  fir,  cottonwood  and  white 
maple.  And  here,  at  its  southern  extremity,  the 
methodist  mission  was  established,  Lee  having  been 
so  advised  by  McLoughlin,  chief  in  these  parts 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  company.  Every  Sunday  a 
sermon  was  preached  at  the  house  of  Joseph 
Gervais,  where,  also,  a  sabbath-school  was  opened, 
but  no  progress  was  made  in  converting  the  na- 
tives. 

Late  in  October  1834  Kelley  and  Ewing  Young 
arrived  with  a  party  from  California.  Born  at  Gil- 
manton,  New  Hampshire,  in  1879,  Kelley  had  grad- 
uated at  Middlebury,  Connecticut,  and  afterward  at 
Harvard  university.  As  early  as  1815  he  began  his 
agitation  of  the  Oregon  question,  and  in  1824  gave 
himself  wholly  up  to  the  work.  By  gathering  in- 
formation and  spreading  it  among  the  people  he  did 
more  than  any  other  man  to  keep  alive  in  the  public 
mind  a  deep  feeling  of  interest  in  Oregon.  He  was 
an  enthusiast  in  the  matter,  making  maps,  forming 
plans,  and  petitioning  congress  for  aid.  He  organized 
a  land  expedition,  which  was  to  have  started  in  1828, 
but  was  afterward  abandoned ;  he  next  attempted  to 
form  one  to  proceed  by  water  in  1832,  but  again  he 
failed.  Kelley  then  determined  at  all  hazards  to  visit 
Oregon,  and  with  a  few  companions  set  forth  in  1833, 
selecting  the  circuitous  route  through  Mexico.  At 
Vera  Cruz,  whither  he  arrived  alone,  his  party  having 


WILLIAM  A.  SLACUM.  519 

separated  from  him,  he  was  robbed,  and  suffered  many 
hardships,  but  was  not  deterred  from  his  design. 
Reaching  California,  he  became  acquainted  at  San 
Diego  with  Ewing  Young,  a  cabinet-maker  by  trade, 
but  trapper,  hunter,  and  adventurer  by  preference, 
and  together  they  proceeded  to  Oregon.  Young  was 
a  native  of  Knox  county,  Tennessee,  and  a  man  of 
intelligence,  possessed  of  great  nerve-power,  a  grand 
physique,  and  that  restless  disposition  which  impels 
men  to  adventure. 

Kelley  and  Jason  Lee  met  in  conference  several 
times,  but  the  latter  had  plans  of  his  own,  and  Kelley 
was  soon  left  to  brood  in  solitude  over  the  failure  of 
his  project  for  forming  an  ideal  American  settlement. 
In  1835  he  returned  to  Boston,  where  he  published  a 
pamphlet  setting  forth  the  hardships  and  injustice  in- 
flicted on  American  settlers  by  the  exclusiveness  of 
the  British  fur  company,  which  put  in  force  most  ar- 
bitrary measures  to  drive  away  those  who  would  not 
submit  to  its  domination. 

In  view  of  these  charges,  the  government  instructed 

O          '  O 

William  A.  Slacum,  connected  with  the  naval  ser- 
vice, to  visit  Oregon,  ascertain  the  truth  of  Kelley 's 
story,  and  collect  all  political,  physical,  and  geopraph- 
ical  information  that  might  prove  useful.  Slacum  ar- 
rived in  December  1836,  and  reached  Fort  Vancouver 
January  2,  1837,  where  he  was  hospitably  received. 
McLoughlin  was  informed  by  his  visitor  that  he  was 
a  member  of  a  private  expedition  in  search  of  informa- 
tion respecting  the  country  But  the  chief- factor  was 
not  deceived  ;  he  recognized  in  the  man  an  agent  of 
the  United  States  government,  and  knew  that  all 
that  wras  seen  and  heard  would  be  reported  to  it.  He 
deemed  it  expedient,  therefore,  to  make  a  full  state- 
ment in  regard  to  all  matters  at  issue.  After  visiting 
the  mission  and  settlers  in  the  Willamette  valley, 
Slacum  took  his  departure,  while  Young  attempted 
to  establish  a  distillery  to  prevent  which  the  mis- 
sionaries organized  a  temperance  society. 


520  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

In  the  work  of  occupying  Oregon  the  methodists 
were  followed  by  the  presbyterians,  of  whom  Samuel 
Parker  of  Ithaca,  New  York,  and  Marcus  Whitman 
were  leaders.  Parker  was  a  man  of  intelligence  and 
refinement,  of  somewhat  precise  and  solemn  deport- 
ment, but  sincere  and  courageous.  He  was  older  than 
Whitman,  and  of  a  lively  disposition,  outspoken,  and 
of  easy  manners.  Prompt,  energetic,  and  brave,  yet 
kind  withal,  he  was  well  fitted  to  be  the  pioneer  of 
missionary  enterprise,  his  sinewy  frame  and  vigorous 
constitution  rendering  him  capable  of  enduring  hard- 
ships. He  was  a  native  of  Rushville,  New  York. 

Parker  made  a  journey  to  Fort  Vancouver  and 
the  Nez  Perce  country,  and  returned  east.  Whitman, 
in  company  with  H.  H.  Spaulding,  a  plain,  practical 
man,  but  full  of  zeal,  both  of  them  missionaries,  and 
accompanied  by  their  wives,  proceeded  in  1836  to 
Waiilatpu,  Whitman  taking  up  his  residence  in  a 
house  which  Parker  had  built,  while  Spaulding  lo- 
cated himself  in  the  Lapwai  valley.  Among  other 
missionaries  entering  early  the  Oregon  territory  were 
W.  H.  Gray,  Elkinah  Walker,  and  Gushing  C.  Eells. 

The  Willamette  mission  of  the  methodists  was 
reenforced  in  1837  by  a  party  of  eight  from  Boston, 
conspicuous  among  whom  was  Elijah  White,  doctor, 
just  past  thirty  years  of  age,  of  a  sight,  elastic  frame, 
and  slippery  tongue  and  conscience.  Next  was  Alan- 
son  Beers,  a  blacksmith,  a  stout,  strong  man  of  dark 
complexion,  homely  disposition,  and  rigid  honesty.  In 
marked  contrast  to  him  was  W.  H.  Willson,  ship-car- 
penter, a  tall,  well-built  man,  of  cheerful  and  affection- 
ate disposition,  kind  to  children  and  animals,  ever 
ready  to  entertain  his  listeners  with  strange  sea- 
stories,  some  parts  of  which  were  true.  Other  pio- 
neers were  Anna  Maria  Pitman,  who  married  Jason 
Lee,  a  tall,  dark-hued  woman,  with  some  poetic  tal- 
ent, fervently  pious  and  enthusiastic  ;  Susan  Down- 
ing, who  married  Cyrus  Shepard ;  and  Miss  Johnson, 
a  pure-minded,  estimable  damsel,  zealously  devoted  to 


ROE,  LEE,  AND  PERKINS.  521 

her  duty.  Charles  J.  Roe  was  also  married  to  Nancy 
McKay.  These  were  the  first  marriages  solemnized 
in  the  Willamette  valley  by  church  rites.  Very 
shortly  after  this  event  a  second  reenforcement  ar- 
rived from  Boston,  and  the  population  at  the  Willam- 
ette mission  now  numbered  sixty  persons,  nearly 
equally  divided  between  natives  and  white  settlers. 
In  March  1838  Daniel  Lee  with  H.  K.  W.  Perkins, 
one  of  the  last  comers,  established  a  mission  near  the 
Dalles,  at  a  point  on  which  Gray  had  endeavored  to 
persuade  Whitman  to  plant  a  presbyterian  mission. 

Jason  Lee  must  now  be  regarded  more  as  an 
American  colonizer  than  as  a  missionary.  He  had 
been  unsuccessful  in  his  efforts  to  gather  the  savages 
into  his  fold,  and  like  a  sensible  man.  he  turned  his 
attention  to  business.  He  conceived  the  idea  of 
founding  a  methodist  state,  whatever  that  may  be, 
and  in  1837-8  went  east  to  obtain  men  and  means. 
He  gave  lectures  on  Oregon,  and  importuned  congress, 
until,  finally,  a  vessel  was  freighted,  partly  by  the  aid 
of  government,  and  partly  from  the  gifts  of  Sunday- 
school  children  and  sewing  societies.  Not  long  after- 
ward a  mission  was  established  among  the  Clatsops, 
and  one  near  Fort  Nisqually. 

Meanwhile  Jason  Lee,  recognizing  that  French 
prairie  was  not  the  best  place  in  which  to  plant 
American  institutions,  selected  a  large  and  fertile 
plain,  ten  miles  south  of  the  original  location,  and 
called  by  the  natives  Chemeketa,  that  is  to  say, 
Here  we  rest.  The  place  was  well  supplied  with 
timber  and  water-power,  and  on  his  return  from  the 
east  Lee  proceeded  to  remove  his  people  thither. 
Between  2,000  and  3,000  acres  were  selected  and  a 
grist  and  saw-mill  erected. 

After  starting  this  new  settlement,  Lee,  one  of  the 
brethren,  and  Hines,  explored  the  Umpqua  country, 
but  found  no  inducement  to  plant  a  mission  therein. 
On  their  return  a  misunderstanding  arose  between 
Lee  and  White,  the  latter  having  caused  more  money 


522  GOVERNMENT- OREGON. 

to  be  expended  in  the  erection  of  a  hospital  than  was 
approved  of  by  Lee.  White  resigned  and  went  home, 
where  his  representations  to  the  board  created  an 
unfavorable  impression  with  regard  to  Lee,  whose 
course  was  likewise  criticised  by  some  of  his  own 
people.  In  fact,  there  was  a  foolish  quarrel  among 
the  worthy  missionaries. 

Meantime  Jason  Lee  continued  to  mature  his 
plans  for  the  founding  of  a  methodist  state.  A  build- 
ing was  erected  on  the  Chemeketa  plain,  at  an  ex- 
pense of  $10,000  ;  the  Oregon  institute  was  organized, 
for  the  education  of  white  children,  and  a  building 
constructed,  at  a  cost  of  $3,000,  three  miles  to  the 
north. 

But  there  was  a  scheme  in  which  the  methodist 
superintendent  was,  perhaps,  still  more  deeply  inter- 
ested, and  that  was  the  acquisition  of  the  water-power 
at  the  falls  of  the  Willamette.  John  McLoughlin 
held  the  property,  as  was  well  known,  having  taken 
possession  of  it  in  1829;  and  as  no  settlement  of 
boundary  had  been  arrived  at,  he  could  maintain  his 
right.  He  had  already  made  improvements  by  the 
erection  of  several  houses  and  the  construction  of  a 
mill-race.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  mis- 
sionaries from  finally  securing  a  large  share,  after 
lengthy  and  bitter  quarrels,  during  which  were  forgot- 
ten all  the  chief-factor's  many  deeds  of  kindness 
toward  the  very  men  who  now  repaid  him  with  wrong 
and  injustice. 

In  the  autumn  of  1843  the  first  large  overland  im- 
migration of  families  arrived.  In  mission  affairs  Lee 
was  superseded  by  George  Gary,  who  had  been  sent 
out  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  the  brethren.  Two 
years  later  the  former  died  in  Canada.  The  latter 
reached  Oregon  city,  June  1,  1844,  and  a  meeting  of 
the  missionaries  was  held  on  the  7th  at  Chemeketa. 
After  a  lon£  consultation  it  was  decided  to  dissolve 

O 

the  mission.     All  the  property,  consisting  of  houses, 
farms,  farming  implements,  cattle,  mills,  and  goods  of 


CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  523 

every  description  at  Chemeketa,  French  prairie,  and 
Clatsop,  was  sold.  Some  of  the  immigrants  would 
have  been  glad  to  purchase,  but  it  was  all  secured  by 
the  missionaries.  Hamilton  Campbell  was  allowed 
to  buy  all  the  mission  herds  on  long  credit,  and  George 
Abernethy  obtained  possession  of  the  mission  store. 
Houses  and  farms  were  disposed  of  to  the  amount  of 
$26,000,  less  than  half  the  original  cost. 

The  methodist  missions  in  Oregon  were  now  all 
closed  except  the  station  at  the  Dalles,  which  was 
occupied  only  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  valuable 
land  claim.  Thither  Waller  was  sent,  but  Whitman, 
at  Waiilatpu,  wishing  to  purchase  the  property,  it 
was  sold  to  him,  and  the  former  returned  to  the 
Willamette.  Thus  ended  ten  years  of  missionary 
labor,  at  a  cost  to  the  society  of  quarter  of  a  million 
dollars.  The  persons  sent  to  Oregon  by  the  society 
made  good  colonists  and  exercised  a  wholesome  in- 
fluence, which  extended  from  missionary  times  to  a 
much  later  date. 

When  the  methodists  arrived  at  French  prairie  in 
1835,  the  Canadians  became  desirous  of  obtaining  in- 
structors of  their  own  faith,  and,  in  answer  to  their 
appeals,  the  archbishop  of  Quebec  appointed  the 
Reverend  Francis  Norbert  Blanchet  to  establish  and 
take  charge  of  a  mission  in  Oregon,  with  the  title  of 
vicar-general,  and,  for  his  assistant,  gave  him  the 
Reverend  Modesto  Demers.  The  priests  left  Mont- 
real in  May  1838,  arriving  at  Fort  Vancouver  in  the 
autumn.  Blanchet  established  himself  among  the 
Cowlitz,  erecting  a  log  house,  the  place  receiving  the 
name  of  St  Francis  Xavier. 

During  the  summer  of  1839,  Demers  visited  the 
natives  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Colville  and  Nisqually, 
and  on  his  return,  in  October,  was  assigned  to  the 
charge  of  the  Cowlitz  establishment,  the  vicar-general 
having  proceeded  to  the  Willamette  valley,  where  he 
took  up  his  residence  October  12th,  and  dedicated  to 


524  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

St  Paul,  January  6,  1840,  a  log  church  which  had 
been  built  in  1836  in  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of 
catholic  priests. 

Jealousy  arose  between  the  catholics  and  metho- 
dists.  In  the  spring  of  1840  Pierre  J.  De  Smet,  a 
Jesuit,  established  himself  among  the  Flatheads,  and 
by  his  imposing  presence,  his  intellect,  and  energy,  he 
achieved  a  marked  success.  Returning  to  St  Louis, 
he  came  again  the  following  year  with  the  Reverend 
Gregorio  Mengarini  of  Rome,  the  Reverend  Nicolas 
Point,  a  Vendean,  and  three  lay  brothers  who  were 
good  mechanics.  On  September  24,  1841,  the  Flat- 
head  mission  of  St  Mary  was  founded  on  Bitter  Root 
river,  and  later  the  mission  of  Sacred  Heart  among 
the  Coeurs  d'Alenes.  Fathers  Peter  de  Vos  and 
Adrian  Hoeken,  with  three  lay  brothers,  were  sent 
to  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  De  Smet  was  despatched 
to  Europe  to  solicit  aid.  He  was  successful,  and  on 
July  31,  1844,  he  again  arrived  in  Oregon,  accom- 
panied by  fathers  Antonio  Ravalli,  Giovanni  Nobili, 
Aloysius  Vercruysse,  Michele  Accolti,  several  lay 
brothers,  and  six  sisters  of  Notre  Dame  de  Namur. 
The  sisters  took  possession  of  a  convent  prepared  for 
them  in  French  prairie,  called  St  Mary,  and  opened 
a  school  for  girls  in  October.  With  the  aid  of  his 
reinforcements  De  Smet  founded  in  quick  succession 
the  mission  of  St  Ignatius  among  the  Pend  d'Oreilles, 
and  the  chapels  of  St  Francis  Borgia  among  the 
Kalispelms,  St  Francis  Regis  in  Colville  valley,  St 
Peter's  at  the  great  lakes  of  the  Columbia,  the  As- 
sumption on  Flatbow  lake,  and  the  Holy  Heart  of 
Mary  among  the  Kootenai. 

Meantime  Oregon  had  been  erected  by  Pope  Greg- 
ory XVI.  into  an  apostolic  vicariate,  Blanchet  being 
appointed  archbishop,  and  Demers  succeeding  him 
as  vicar-general.  The  briefs  reached  Oregon  Novem- 
ber 4,  1844,  and  Blanchet  proceeded  to  Canada  to  re- 
ceive his  consecration,  and  thence  made  a  voyage  to 
Europe,  returning  to  Oregon  in  August  1847,  bring- 


BLANCHET  AND  BEOUILLET.  525 

ing  with  him  twenty-one  recruits,  among  whom  were 
seven  sisters  of  Notre  Dame  de  Namur. 

During  the  archbishop's  absence  in  Europe  his 
vicariate  had  been  erected  into  an  ecclesiastical  prov- 
ince, containing  the  three  sees  of  Oregon  city,  Walla 
Walla,  and  Vancouver  island.  The  first  was  allotted 
to  the  archbishop,  the  second  to  his  brother  A.  M.  A. 
Blanchet,  canon  of  Montreal,  and  the  third  to  Vicar- 
general  Deiners.  The  bishop  of  Walla  Walla  arrived 
in  Oregon  during  the  autumn  of  1847,  accompanied  by 
nine  others,  among  whom  was  J.  B.  A.  Brouillet, 
who  had  been  appointed  vicar-general  of  Walla  Walla. 

Meanwhile  matters  were  less  prosperous  among  the 
presbyterians.  In  1840  the  station  at  Kamiah  was 
abandoned,  owing  to  the  overbearing  conduct  of  the 
Nez  Perces,  and  affairs  were  almost  as  bad  at  Lapwai 
and  Waiilatpu. 

In  September  ]  842  Whitman  proceeded  to  Boston, 
with  a  view  to  procure  further  assistance  for  the  mis- 
sions. The  board  received  him  coldly,  and  he  returned 
a  year  later,  only  to  be  finally  killed  by  the  Indians. 

Jason  Lee's  lectures  in  the  east  in  1838  attracted 
immigration  to  Oregon.  The  first  movement  was 
from  Peoria,  in  May  1839.  when  a  party  of  fourteen, 
with  Thomas  J.  Farnham  in  command,  set  forth  for 
the  Columbia  river.  Dissension,  however,  soon  broke 
out  among  them,  and  at  Bent  fort  the  company  dis- 
banded. Farnham  proceeded  on  his  journey,  and 
finally,  in  company  with  two  others,  Sidney  Smith 
and  a  Mr.  Blair,  reached  his  destination.  Blair  spent 
the  winter  at  Lapwai,  Smith  obtained  employment 
with  Ewing  Young,  while  Farnham  visited  the  Wil- 
lamette valley.  There  he  was  frequently  consulted  as 
to  the  probability  of  the  United  States  government 
taking  them  under  its  wing.  Acting  upon  his  advice, 
the  inhabitants  drew  up  a  memorial  to  congress,  set- 
ting forth  their  condition.  It  was  signed  by  sixty- 
seven  men,  and  given  to  Farnham,  who  carried  it  to 
Washington. 


520  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

In  the  western  border  states  was  a  great  number 
of  men  who  were  discontented  with  their  locations, 
which  were  remote  from  a  market  for  their  produc- 
tions, and  virtually  excluded  from  the  channels  of 
commerce.  They  were  brave,  restless,  aggressive, 
and  hardy  ;  they  were  intensely  patriotic,  and  a  jour- 
ney across  a  continent  to  assert  American  rights,  with 
the  offer  of  free  lands  on  a  seaboard  which  promised 
commercial  relations  with  the  Hawaiian  islands  and 
China,  presented  no  difficulties  that  they  would  not 
attempt  to  overcome. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1843  emigrants  from  Arkan- 
sas, Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Missouri 
were  on  their  way  to  the  great  rendezvous  near  In- 
dependence. By  the  middle  of  May,  nearly  1,000 
persons  were  assembled,  about  300  of  whom  were  men 
capable  of  bearing  arms.  It  was  now  thought  time 
to  organize.  There  was  also  a  large  company  from 
the  Platte  purchase  in  Missouri  under  the  leadership 
of  Peter  H.  Burnett,  of  Weston,  and  another  from 
St  Glair  county  led  by  Jesse  Applegate,  his  brothers 
Lindsey  and  Charles,  and  Daniel  Waldo.  A  third 
party,  bound  for  California,  was  led  by  Joseph  B. 
Chiles  ;  and  other  companies  were  under  the  leader- 
ships of  T.  D.  Kaiser,  Jesse  Looney,  and  Daniel 
Matheney.  These  several  companies  adopted  the 
usual  rules,  and  organized  by  electing  Burnett  captain 
and  J.  W.  Nesmith  orderly  sergeant,  nine  councilmen 
being  chosen  to  assist  in  settling  disputes. 

The  body  now  moved  forward,  but  after  eight  days 
Burnett  became  disgusted  and  resigned  the  command, 

O  O 

William  Martin  being  elected  in  his  place.  The  latter 
found  such  difficulty  in  controlling  so  large  a  body 
that  at  Big  Blue  river,  it  was  divided  into  two  columns, 
Jesse  Applegate  taking  command  of  the  second  and 
slower  one,  which  was  encumbered  with  herds. 

Arriving  in  the  country  after  the  usual  vicissitudes, 
the  immigrants  took  up  their  several  stations.  Waldo 
made  a  settlement  in  the  hills  southeast  of  Salem, 


APPLEGATE,  NESMITH,  GILLIAM.  527 

which  still  bears  his  name.  Ne smith  settled  in  that 
portion  of  the  Yamhill  district  which  now  constitutes 
Polk  county.  The  Applegates  wintered  at  the  old 
mission,  Jesse  being  employed  in  surveying  at  Salem 
and  Oregon  City.  In  the  spring  the  three  brothers 
selected  farms  in  Yamhill  district,  near  the  present 
site  of  Dallas. 

For  the  first  two  years  the  general  condition  of  the 
new  immigrants  was  one  of  destitution.  The  im- 
migration by  sea  during  1843  amounted  to  fourteen 
persons,  among  whom  was  Francis  W.  Pettygrove 
with  his  wife  and  child.  He  brought  with  him 
$15,000  worth  of  goods,  and  opened  a  store  at  Ore- 
gon City. 

In  the  spring  of  1844  a  large  company,  amounting 
to  1,400  persons,  was  assembled  at  the  Missouri 
river,  of  which  Cornelius  Gilliam  was  elected  general, 
Michael  T.  Simmons  colonel,  and  R.  W.  Morrison, 
William  Shaw,  Richard  Woodcock,  and  Elijah  Ben- 
ton  captains.  A  court  of  equity  was  also  established 
by  the  election  of  a  judge  and  two  associate  justices. 

Gilliam  had  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  an 
independent  colony,  and  the  several  leaders  aspired 
more  to  military  glory  than  to  the  peaceful  pursuits 
of  settlers.  At  this  time  the  attitude  of  the  two 
governments  with  respect  to  the  boundary  question, 
had  assumed  a  warlike  phase,  and  these  immigrants 
would  have  delighted  in  driving  away  the  British. 
Gilliam  had  served  in  the  Black  Hawk  and  Seminole 
wars;  had  preached  the  gospel,  and  been  sheriff  of  a 
county.  He  was  a  fair  specimen  of  the  muscular 
parson,  brave,  impetuous,  and  generous,  though  some- 
what wilful  and  obstinate.  He  had  good  natural 
abilities,  though  but  little  developed  by  education. 
Simmons  was  also  uneducated,  but  being  of  a  fearless 
and  resolute  disposition  was  well  suited  to  the  position 
of  colonel  of  such  an  organization.  After  much  suf- 
fering and  a  few  deaths,  the  company  reached  its  des- 
tination in  a  disorganized  condition. 


528  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

Homes  were  the  first  requirement,  and  in  their 
selection  McLoughlin  was  naturally  anxious  that  no 
settler  should  locate  himself  north  of  the  Columbia. 
He  sought  by  every  means  to  cultivate  a  friendly 
feeling,  but  there  were  some  among  those  hardy 
pioneers  who  were  aggressive  in  the  extreme.  They 
were  determined,  before  any  boundary  line  between 
the  conflicting  governments  was  agreed  upon,  that 
Oregon,  north  or  south  of  the  Columbia,  should  not 
become  British,  territory.  And  thus  it  was  that  in 
February,  1845,  Henry  Williamson,  of  Indiana,  and 
Isaac  W.  Alderman  erected  a  small  log-cabin  half  a 
mile  from  Fort  Vancouver,  and  posted  thereon  a 
notice  that  they  intended  to  claim  the  land.  Mc- 
Loughlin pulled  down  the  cabin  and  tore  the  notice 
to  pieces.  Then  followed  a  stormy  interview  between 
the  squatters  and  the  factor,  at  which  Alderman 
made  himself  conspicuous  for  his  abusive  language 
and  violent  demeanor.  He  went  to  California  in 
1848,  and  was  killed  in  December  of  that  year  by 
Charles  E,  Pickett  at  Sutter's  fort,  under  circum- 
stances that  justified  the  homicide. 

In  no  particular  does  it  appear  that  McLoughlin 
overstepped  the  limits  of  his  position  in  dealing  with 
this  aggression.  His  duty  was  clearly  marked  out  — 
the  protection  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  company's  posts 
arid  property,  Trespassing  upon  land  to  which  the 
company  had  a  prior  right  or  claim,  pending  a  settle- 
ment, could  not  be  admitted  by  one  in  charge  of  the 
company's  interests.  McLoughlin's  earnest  wish  was 
to  be  at  peace,  and  avoid  lawlessness  and  misrule. 
He  assisted,  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  him  to  do  so, 
the  destitute  and  needy,  supplying  them  on  credit 
with  the  means  of  subsistence  and  agricultural  imple- 
ments. Yet  his  beneficent  intentions  were  not  appre- 
ciated at  the  time.  There  was  a  pressure,  irresistible 
in  its  action,  the  surge  of  a  human  tide,  determined 
to  gain  possession  of  the  land.  And  thus  it  was  that 
his  benevolence,  being  regarded  as  weakness,  provoked 


LEVI  SCOTT.  529 

encroachment.  Williamson  and  Alderman  had  to 
yield,  but  their  discomfiture  did  not  deter  others  from 
proceeding  further  northward  and  settling  on  Puget 
sound.  Michael  T.  Simmons,  James  McAllister, 
David  Kindred,  Gabriel  Jones,  and  George  W.  Bush, 
with  their  families,  and  two  unmarried  men,  Jesse 
Ferguson  and  Samuel  B.  Crockett,  settled  at  the  head 
of  the  sound  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tumwater. 

The  migration  into  Oregon  in  1845  was  far  in  ex- 
cess of  those  of  previous  years,  the  estimated  arri- 
vals being  no  less  than  3,000  persons,  which  doubled 
the  white  population,  and  had  a  marked  effect  on  the 
solution  of  the  boundary  question.  At  this  date  it 
was  a  moot  question  whether  the  British  or  Ameri- 
cans would  secure  California,  it  being  well  understood 
that  the  possession  of  that  region  would  give  com- 
mand of  the  seaboard  thence  to  the  undisputed  Brit- 
ish territory.  The  immigration  of  1846  was  not  so 
large  as  that  of  the  previous  year.  It  is  probable 
that  it  amounted  to  between  1,500  and  1,700  persons. 

In  close  connection  with  these  migrations  westward 
— some  portions  of  which  it  must  be  understood  turned 
toward  California — -were  the  explorations  made  in  the 
endeavor  to  find  a  practicable  wagon  route  leading 
into  the  Willamette  valley.  The  sufferings  of  the 
immigrants  of  1843-5  stimulated  both  the  United 
States  government  and  the  colonists  in  Oregon  to 
search  for  a  good  road  between  the  eastern  states  and 
the  far-off  regions  bordering  on  the  Pacific.  An  im- 
pulse was,  moreover,  given  both  to  the  government 
and  colonists  by  the  boundary  question.  The  possi- 
bility of  troops  being  sent  overland  from  Canada,  in 
case  of  hostility,  had  been  investigated  by  the  British 
officers,  Park  and  Peel,  and  the  fur  company's  posts 
had  been  found  to  be  so  located  that  there  would  be 
no  great  difficulty  in  marching  a  strong  force  into  the 
disputed  territory,  Settlers  iu  Oregon  were  there- 

C.  B.— II.     34 


530  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

fore  anxious,  in  view  of  their  determination  to  hold 
possession,  that  an  equally  good  route  to  some  central 
point  should  be  discovered  and  opened  up,  in  order 
that  troops  and  armaments  might  be  concentrated 
against  possible  attack. 

Early  in  May  1846,  a  company  was  formed  to 
search  for  a  pass  in  the  Cascade  mountains.  It  was 
privately  assisted  by  Jesse  arid  Lindsey  Applegate,  but 
failing  in  its  first  attempt  returned  for  reinforcements. 
The  two  Appelgates  thereupon  determined  that  a  fur- 
ther effort  should  be  made,  and  leaving  the  comforts 
of  home,  proceeded  with  thirteen  others  to  perform 
the  difficult  task.  Besides  the  Applegates  was 
Levi  Scott,  a  native  of  Illinois,  a  man  of  character 
and  determination,  and  the  prime  mover  of  the  enter- 
prise. Others  were  Henry  Bogus,  David  Goff, 
Owens,  and  Harris.  They  succeeded  in  discovering 
passes  through  the  Cascade  range  and  the  dividing 
ridge  which  separates  the  great  basin  of  the  Hum- 
boldt  and  the  lake  basin  of  the  Pacific  coast. 

Among  the  several  routes  discovered  the  superiority 
of  the  southern  one  was  established  by  Scott,  who  in 
May  1847  guided  over  it  a  party  of  twenty  men  re- 
turning to  the  States,  and  also  a  portion  of  the  mi- 
gration of  the  following  autumn.  Scott's  company 
reached  the  Willamette  in  good  season  and  in  good 
condition,  whereas  those  who  took  the  northern  road 
underwent  the  usual  hardships.  The  legislature  of  this 
year  passed  an  act  for  the  improvement  of  the  southern 
route,  making  Levi  Scott  commissioner,  and  allowing 
him  to  collect  a  small  toll.  Scott  was  the  founder 
of  Scottsburg,  on  the  Umpqua  river,  and  died  in  Lane 
county  in  1878,  at  the  age  of  eighty.  He  was  much 
respected  for  his  many  estimable  traits  of  character. 

Jesse  Applegate  settled  in  1849  at  the  headwaters 
of  Elk  creek  in  the  Umpqua  valley,  and  near  him 
was  his  brother  Charles.  Lindsey  Applegate  settled 
somewhat  later  on  Ashland  creek,  where  the  town  of 
Ashland  now  stands, 


JAMES  DOUGLAS.  631 

Having  thus  narrated  the  leading  incidents  con- 
nected with  the  colonization  of  Oregon,  we  are  pre- 
pared to  understand  events  in  connection  with  the 
origin  and  development  of  a  territorial  government. 

Prior  to  the  arrival  of  Americans  in  the  Oregon 
country  no  legal  formalities  had  been  found  neces- 
sary. The  authority  of  the  chief  factor  was  absolute, 
the  fur  company's  charter  empowering  the  governor 
and  council  to  put  on  trial  and  punish  offenders  be- 
longing to  its  corps  of  employes.  The  Canadians  and 
other  servants  of  the  company  yielded  without  ques- 
tion to  their  right  to  judge  and  punish.  But  with 
the  Americans  it  was  different.  The  charter  forbade 
any  British  subject  to  trespass  upon  the  company's 
territory  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  but  this  prohibi- 
tion could  not  apply  to  others. 

Foreseeing  that  troubles  would  arise,  McLoughlin 
took  timely  measures  by  procuring,  through  an  act  of 
parliament,  the  appointment  of  justices  of  the  peace 
in  different  parts  of  the  country,  James  Douglas 
being  selected  to  fill  that  office  at  Fort  Vancouver. 
These  justices  were  empowered  to  adj  udicate  in  cases 
of  minor  offences,  and  impose  punishment;  to  arrest 
persons  guilty  of  serious  crimes  and  send  them  to 
Canada  for  trial ;  and  to  try  civil  suits  where  the 
amount  in  dispute  did  not  exceed  £200,  and  give 
judgment  therein. 

In  order  not  to  be  behind  the  British  fur  company 
in  the  exercise  of  civil  jurisdiction,  the  methodist  mis- 
sions in  1838  furnished  the  colonists  with  a  magistrate 
and  constable.  The  arrival  of  the  great  missionary 
reenforcement  of  1840  made  it  manifest  that  some 
form  of  government  would  soon  be  needed,  and  in  the 
following  winter  the  death  of  Ewing  Young  furnished 
the  occasion  for  establishing  some  such  machinery. 
Young  had  left  property  to  which  there  were 
no  known  heirs,  and  the  administration  of  the  estate 
became  necessary.  A  meeting  of  the  settlers  was 


532  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

called,  to  be  held  on  the  17th  and  18th  of  February, 
1841,  the  result  of  which  was  the  choosing  of  a  com- 
mittee to  frame  a  constitution  and  code  of  laws ;  and 
though  it  was  deemed  expedient  to  defer  the  election 
of  a  governor,  owing  to  the  opposition  of  the  settlers 
to  a  chief  magistrate  drawn  from  the  missionary 
party,  a  supreme  judge  with  probate  powers,  a  clerk 
of  the  courts,  public  recorder,  high  sheriff  and  three 
constables  were  chosen.  The  convention  then  ad- 
journed to  meet  again  on  the  7th  of  June. 

But  when  that  day  arrived  it  was  found  that  no  re- 
port had  been  prepared  by  the  committee,  which  in 
fact  had  not  even  been  called  together  by  its  chair- 
man, F.  N".  Blanchet,  who  now  resigned.  The  fact 
is  that  the  mission  party,  which  was  scheming  to  es- 
tablish a  government,  hoped  to  secure  the  catholic  in- 
fluence by  making  Blanchet  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee, and  his  withdrawal  signified  that  the  Canadians 
would  take  no  part  in  its  organization.  Resolutions 
were  passed  rescinding  the  nominations  made  at  the 
previous  meeting,  and  an  adjournment  made  to  the 
first  Thursday  in  October.  The  question  as  to  the 
necessity  of  a  governor  was  revived,  while  many  in- 
fluential persons  were  opposed  to  the  idea  of  a  govern- 
ment so  lon^  as  harmony  existed  without  one.  More- 

O  </ 

over,  Lieutenant  Wilkes,  in  command  of  the  United 
States  exploring  expedition,  was  in  Oregon  at  this 
time,  and  being  consulted  condemned  the  scheme  on 
the  ground  that  only  a  small  minority  of  the  people, 
desired  to  establish  a  government;  that  laws  were 
not  necessary  and  would  be  a  poor  substitute  for  the 
moral  code  followed  by  all ;  that  the  majority  of  the 
population  being  catholic  would  elect  all  the  important 
officers;  and  that  an  unfavorable  impression  would  be 
produced  in  the  United  States  as  to  the  influence  of 
missions,  which  were  obliged  to  resort  to  a  criminal 
code.  Thus  baffled,  the  missionary  party  made  no 
further  effort  for  the  moment. 

The  return  of  White   in   1842,  with  a  provisional 


INDIAN  AGENT  WHITE.  533 

claim  to  the  governorship  appended  to  his  commis- 
sion as  Indian  agent,  stirred  up  the  question  anew. 
Few  were  anxious  to  see  White  the  civil  head  of  the 
community ;  and  the  missionary  party,  without  openly 
opposing  him,  quietly  used  their  influence  to  crush 
him. 

During  the  autumn  of  1842   overtures  were  again 

O  *^ 

made  to  the  Canadians  to  assist  in  forming  a  tempo- 
rary government,  but  they  again  declined.  Meetings, 
however,  were  held  in  different  parts  of  the  colony, 
called  ostensibly  to  devise  means  of  protecting  the 
herds  from  wild  animals,  but  really  to  bring  the  set- 
tlers together,  both  Canadian  and  American,  in  order 
that  the  plan  of  a  provisional  government  might  be 
broached.  Notice  was  given  that  a  general  meeting 
would  be  held,  March  6,  1843,  at  the  house  of  Joseph 
Gervais,  a  friend  of  the  methodist  mission  ;  and  as 
almost  every  settler  had  sustained  loss  through  de- 
struction of  stock  by  panthers,  wolves,  and  cougars, 
the  meeting  was  well  attended.  The  preliminary  bus- 
iness being  concluded,  and  a  Wolf  organization  formed, 
a  resolution  was  passed,  "that  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of 
taking  measures  for  the  civil  and  military  protection 
of  this  colony."  A  committee  of  twelve  members 
was  appointed  to  report.  Meantime,  the  matter  was 
skilfully  agitated  among  the  settlers,  who  were  con- 
vinced that  an  organization  was  becoming  inevitable ; 
and  the  time  for  action  being  now  ripe,  the  committee 
called  a  mass  meeting  to  be  held  May  2d  at  Cham- 
poeg  to  hear  their  report. 

The  number  of  American  and  Canadian  settlers 
that  assembled  on  the  appointed  day  was  about 
equally  divided.  After  the  report  of  the  committee, 
which  was  in  favor  of  organization,  had  been  read, 
a  motion  to  accept  it  was  made.  Thereupon  consid- 
erable confusion  ensued,  and  it  was  found  impossible 
to  count  the  ayes  and  noes  without  a  division  of  the 
meeting.  This  being  done,  it  was  found  that  a  small 


534  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

majority  was  in  favor  of  organizing  a  temporary  gov- 
ernment, whereupon  the  minority  withdrew. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  next  taken  and 
disposed  of  article  by  article,  the  result  being  the 
election  of  a  supreme  judge,  recorder,  sheriff,  four 
magistrates,  and  four  constables.  Military  officers 
were  also  chosen,  and  a  legislative  committee,  consist- 

Z3 

ing  of  nine  members,  whose  duty  it  was  to  draft  a 
code  of  laws,  the  5th  of  July  being  appointed  as  the 
day  on  which  to  receive  their  report.  At  the  ap- 
pointed time  the  meeting  assembled,  and  adopted  the 
several  reports  on  the  judiciary,  ways  and  means, 
military  affairs,  land  claims,  and  the  division  of  the 
territory  into  districts.  The  legislative  power  was 
vested  in  a  committee  of  nine  persons,  to  be  elected 
annually.  The  judicial  power  was  vested  in  a  supreme 
court,  consisting  of  a  supreme  judge  and  two  justices 
of  the  peace. 

The  question  of  an  executive  had  troubled  the 
minds  of  the  legislative  committee  not  a  little.  Such 
a  head  was  necessary,  and  the  committee  solved  the 
difficulty  by  recommending  the  appointment  of  an 
executive  committee.  This  article  of  the  proposed 
code  caused  considerable  debate,  but  the  plan  was 
finally  adopted,  David  Hill,  Alanson  Beers,  and 
Joseph  Gale,  none  of  whom  had  influence  enough  to 
be  dangerous,  being  elected  the  members  of  the  first 
executive  committee. 

As  regards  the  military  law,  it  provided  for  one 
battalion,  divided  into  three  or  more  companies  of 
mounted  riflemen.  With  the  consent  of  the  executive 
committee,  White,  as  an  authorized  agent  of  the 
United  States,  might  call  on  these  troops  to  quell 
uprisings  of  the  Indians. 

The  law  of  land  claims  was  the  most  important  of 
all  to  those  who  were  in  favor  of  organization.  It 
required  that  each  claimant  should  designate  the 
boundaries  of  his  claim  and  have  the  same  recorded 
in  the  office  of  the  territorial  recorder.  Improve- 


JUDICIARY.  535 

ments  must  be  made  on  the  land  within  six  months 
after  recording,  and  the  claimant  was  required  to  re- 
side on  it  within  one  year  thereafter.  No  one  could 
hold  a  claim  of  more  than  one  square  mile,  or  its 
equivalent  in  acres  in  an  oblong  form.  The  fourth 
article  was  designed  to  extinguish  John  McLoughlin's 
claim  at  Oregon  City.  It  forbade  all  persons  to  hold 
claims  upon  city  or  town  sites,  extensive  water  privi- 
leges, or  other  locations  necessary  for  mercantile  or 
manufacturing  purposes.  When  the  motion  was  put 
to  adopt  the  law  as  a  whole,  considerable  argument 
arose,  as  the  mission  laid  claim  to  a  portion  of  the 
land  and  had  erected  mills  on  the  island  at  the  falls. 
In  order  to  meet  the  emergency  and  satisfy  the  mis- 
sion, a  proviso  was  introduced  to  the  effect  "that 
nothing  in  these  laws  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  affect 
any  claim  of  any  mission  of  a  religious  character, 
made  previous  to  this  time,  of  an  extent  not  more 
than  six  miles  square."  Thus  early  was  legislation 
perverted  in  the  name  of  religion. 

A  committee  composed  of  Jason  Lee,  Harvey 
Clark,  and  David  Leslie  was  chosen  to  administer  the 
the  oath  of  office  to  those  who  were  elected  on  May 
6th,  and  also  to  the  supreme  judge,  who  thereafter 
would  qualify  all  civil  and  military  officers  elected  by 
the  people.  The  oath  of  office  was  also  administered 
the  same  day  to  the  three  members  of  the  executive, 
and  the  business  of  starting  the  machinery  of  the 
first  government  of  Oregon  was  concluded. 

As  I  have  already  mentioned,  the  immigration  of 
1843  greatly  swelled  the  number  of  the  settlers. 
The  new-comers  were  a  people  of  pronounced  char- 
acter, and  their  leaders  aspired  to  the  achievement  of 
founding  a  state.  On  their  arrival  they  eagerly  dis- 
cussed the  laws  that  had  been  passed,  of  which  the 
land  law  was  the  most  important.  Thereby  it  was 
enacted  that  new  settlers  should  record  their  claims 
within  twenty  days  after  locating  them,  while  old  set- 
tlers were  allowed  a  year.  This  was  regarded  as  un- 


536  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

just  discrimination ;  and  the  proviso  allowing  the  mis- 
sions six  miles  square  indicated  the  grasping  disposi- 
tion of  the  missionaries.  Nevertheless  this  sect  was 
of  all  religions  usually  the  most  popular  on  the  west- 
ern frontier;  and  many  of  the  immigrants  of  1843 
being  zealous  methodists  attached  themselves  to  the 
missionary  party 

But  most  of  the  leading  men  were  not  hampered 
by  religious  allegiance,  and  these  openly  exhibited  a 
preference  for  the  officers  of  the  fur  company,  whose 
friendship  and  respect  they  had  gained  by  their  true 
manliness. 

The  Hudson's  Bay  company  recognized  that  some 
form  of  government  had  become  necessary,  but  they 
could  not  bring  themselves  to  the  point  of  rendering 
allegiance  to  the  United  States.  They,  therefore, 
were  in  favor  of  a  temporary  government,  independ- 
ent of  that  power,  which  plan  was  approved  even  by 
some  of  the  Americans.  The  majority,  however, 
were  opposed  to  such  a  compromise — the  missionaries, 
because  in  the  event  of  a  union  of  the  two  nationali- 
ties, they  would  be  unable  to  hold  a  leading  position 
in  affairs ;  and  others  through  motives  of  patriotism. 

According  to  the  organic  law  the  election  was  held 
on  the  second  Tuesday  of  1844,  at  which  W.  J. 
Bailey,  Osborne  Russell,  and  P.  G.  Stewart  were 
chosen  for  the  executive ;  the  legislative  branch  was 
composed  of  P.  H.  Burnett,  M.  M.  McCarver,  David 
Hill,  Mathew  Gilmore,  A.  L.  Lovejoy,  Daniel  Waldo, 
T.  D.  Kaiser,  and  Robert  Newell.  Bailey  had  been 
in  Oregon  since  1835.  He  was  of  English  birth,  of 
liberal  education,  and  well  adapted  to  the  position. 
Russell  was  a  native  of  Maine,  and  had  been  several 
years  in  the  mountains  with  the  fur  companies.  He 
was  a  man  of  education,  refinement,  and  unswerving 
integrity. 

The  executive  message  to  the  legislature  recom- 
mended that  several  alterations  should  be  made  in 
the  organic  law,  and  also  contained  various  good  sug- 


LAW  AND  LAND.  537 

gestions.  Much  of  the  work  of  the  previous  year 
was  undone  by  the  legislature  of  1844.  By  an  act  of 
June  27th  the  executive  power  was  vested  in  a  single 
person,  to  be  elected  at  the  next  annual  election,  and 
to  hold  office  for  a  term  of  two  years.  The  legislative 

i/  O 

power  was  vested  in  a  house  of  representatives,  con- 
sisting of  thirteen  members,  nine  being  thought  too 
small  a  number,  in  view  of  the  increased  population. 
The  judiciary  system  was  also  changed,  the  judicial 
power  being  vested  in  circuit  courts  and  justices  of 
the  peace,  while  a  judge  with  probate  powers  was  to 
be  appointed,  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  hold  two 
terms  of  court  in  each  county,  annually. 

One  of  the  conditions  insisted  upon  by  the  old 
colonists,  in  consenting  to  the  organization  of  a  gov- 
ernment, was  that  they  should  not  be  taxed.  But  a 
regular  government  could  not  be  sustained  without  a 
revenue,  and  the  ways  and  means  act  called  for  a  tax 
of  one. eighth  of  one  per  cent  upon  the  value  of  mer- 
chandise brought  into  the  country ;  on  improvements 
on  town  lots ;  on  mills,  private  carriages,  clocks, 
watches,  horses,  mules,  cattle,  and  hogs.  Every 
white  voter,  moreover,  had  to  pay  a  poll-tax  of  fifty 
cents.  The  same  act  provided  that  any  person  refus- 
ing to  pay  taxes  should  have  no  benfit  from  the  laws 
of  Oregon,  and  should  be  disqualified  from  voting. 
This  pressure  was  effectual ;  few  were  willing  to  fore- 
go the  assistance  of  the  government  in  preventing 
trespass  and  collecting  debts,  or  to  be  placed  outside 
the  pale  of  politics  and  society. 

The  land  law  was  repealed,  and  the  obnoxious  dis- 
crimination between  old  and  new  settlers  done  away 
with  by  dispensing  with  the  custom  of  recording 
claims,  which  was  considered  a  doubtful  privilege,  as 
the  country  was  unsurveyed.  Only  free  men  over 
eighteen  years  of  age  could  legally  claim  640  acres, 
though  a  boy  under  eighteen,  if  married,  could  hold 
land ;  occupancy  was  interpreted  as  actual  residence 
by  the  owner  or  his  agent.  But  the  great  change 


538  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

desired  by  the  people  was  to  disallow  the  right  of 
missions  to  hold  six  miles  square  of  land,  and  as  three- 
fourths  of  the  legislature  were  new-coiners — the  ninth 
member  not  having  been  elected — this  was  effected, 
and  the  missions  placed  on  the  same  footing  with 
other  claimants. 

The  seat  of  government  was  established  at  Oregon 
City,  called  in  the  act  Willamette  Falls,  and  the 
Columbia  river  declared  to  be  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  territory;  but  this  last  act  caused  such  an 
outburst  of  popular  opposition  that  at  the  second 
session,  in  December,  an  explanatory  act  was  passed, 
defining  the  territory  of  Oregon  as  lying  between  lati- 
tudes 42°  and  54°  40',  and  extending  from  the  Rocky 
mountains  to  the  sea. 

Slavery  was  forbidden  in  Oregon,  and  laws  were 
enacted  bearing  upon  that  question.  Neither  could 
the  presence  of  the  free  negro  or  mulatto  be  toler- 
ated ;  and  to  rid  the  country  of  this  objectionable 
element  it  was  enacted  that  corporal  punishment 
should  be  inflicted  on  all  black  men  of  eighteen  years 
and  upwards,  who  had  had  not  left  the  territory 
within  two  years  after  the  passage  of  the  act.  Such 
a  law,  however,  conflicted  too  glaringly  with  the 
spirit  of  free  institutions,  and  it  was  amended  at  the 
December  session.  The  section  making  whipping  the 
punishment  for  remaining  in  the  country  was  re- 
pealed, and  one  substituted,  providing  for  the  hiring 
out  of  such  offenders,  to  any  person  who  would  give 
bonds  to  remove  them  out  of  the  territory  within  the 
shortest  possible  space  of  time,  availing  himself  of 
their  services  by  way  of  compensation.  During  the 
two  years  that  this  law  remained  inoperative,  changes 
occurred  in  the  territory  which  did  away  with  the 
motive  for  enforcing  it. 

Another  act  passed  at  the  December  session,  pro- 
vided for  the  holding  of  a  constitutional  convention, 
and  the  executive  committee  was  required  to  notify 
the  inhabitants  that  at  the  next  annual  election  they 


GEORGE  ABERNETHY.  539 

should  give  their  votes  for  or  against  the  call  for  a 
convention  to  frame  a  constitution.  This  act  was  un- 
favorably regarded  by  the  admirers  of  the  original 
organic  law,  being  considered  a  movement  toward  an 
independent  government ;  but  considering  the  slow- 
ness with  which  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  ques- 
tion was  proceeding,  the  acts  of  December  showed  a 
determination  to  perfect,  as  rapidly  as  possible,  a  gov- 
ernment which  would  be  able  to  cope  with  whatever 
exigencies  might  arise. 

The  expenses  of  this  incipient  government  were  ex- 
tremely small.  The  salary  assigned  to  the  future 
governor  was  only  $300  a  year,  and  the  pay  of  the 
executive  committee  the  same  amount,  that  is,  $100 
to  each  member.  The  legislative  committee  voted 
themselves  two  dollars  a  day,  and  the  same  for  the 
assessor  of  revenue.  The  whole  expenses  of  the  gov- 
ernment during  the  first  year  amounted  to  $917.96, 
to  meet  which  there  were  $358.31  in  the  treasury,  the 
tax-collector  not  having  yet  completed  his  labors. 
This  was  less  than  fifty  cents  for  each  individual  of 
the  country,  the  number  of  the  inhabitants  being  2,109, 
according  to  the  census  taken  that  year  by  order  of 
the  legislature 

It  may  be  considered  that  there  were  now  but  two 
prominent  parties  in  Oregon,  the  American  and  the 
independent,  the  latter  including  the  Canadians. 
There  were  four  candidates  for  the  governorship,  A. 
L.  Lovejoy,  George  Abernethy,  Osborne  Russell, 
and  W.  J.  Bailey.  Lovejoy  represented  the  Ameri- 
can, Russell,  the  independent,  and  Abernethy,  the 
now  feeble  mission  party.  At  the  convention  which 
was  held  at  Champoeg,  April  8,  1845,  Lovejoy  ob- 
tained the  greatest  number  of  votes ;  but  before  the 
election,  the  independents,  seeing  the  impossibility  of 
securing  the  office  for  their  own  candidate,  went  over 
to  Abernethy,  who  accordingly  became  governor. 


540  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

The  call  for  a  constitutional  convention  was  lost  by  a 
considerable  majority. 

The  legislature  held  that  it  was  not  a  constitutioual 
body,  because  the  organic  law  under  which  it  had 
been  created  had  never  been  submitted  to  the  people 
for  approval.  During  the  session,  however,  the  or- 
ganic and  other  laws  were  revised,  especially  the  land 
law,  which  wTas  incorporated  in  the  organic  laws.  It 
was  much  altered  in  its  construction,  no  discrimina- 
tion being  made  in  regard  to  color,  nationality,  age, 
or  sex.  The  revised  organic  law  was  called  a  com- 
pact instead  of  a  constitution. 

On  July  5th  the  legislature  adjourned  to  meet  again 
on  August  5th.  A  special  election  was  held  July 
26th,  at  which  the  people  were  made  acquainted  with 
first,  the  original  laws  enacted  July  5,  1843;  second, 
the  amended  laws  ;  and  third,  a  schedule  declaring 
the  governor  and  legislature  elected  in  June,  the  offi- 
cers to  carry  into  effect  the  amended  organic  laws. 
As  there  was  no  printing-press  in  Oregon  manuscript 
copies  of  each  law  were  made  and  read  three  times  at 
every  polling  place.  The  majority  were  in  favor  of  the 
amended  laws,  and  the  list  of  officers  elected  in  the 
previous  June  was  over  two  hundred. 

The  leading  spirit  in  the  legislature  of  1845  was 
Jesse  Applegate,  whose  fidelity  to  his  trust  is  stamped 
upon  their  proceedings.  Early  in  the  first  session  a 
memorial  to  congress  was  prepared,  setting  forth  the 
condition  and  wants  of  Oregon.  It  was  given  to 
Indian  Agent  White  to  be  carried  to  Washington, 
whither  he  was  proceeding  to  obtain  an  adjustment 
of  his  accounts,  no  funds  having  been  placed  at  his 
disposal  wherewith  to  reimburse  himself  for  expenses 
incurred  in  the  Indian  service. 

White's  aspirations  to  the  governorship  had  been 
disappointed  by  the  turn  which  affairs  had  taken  in 
Oregon,  as  well  as  by  the  change  in  the  administra- 
tion which  had  occurred  at  Washington.  Moreover, 
circumstances  occurred  shortly  after  his  departure 


GEORGE  ABERNETHY.  541 

that  excluded  him  thereafter  from  taking  part  in  pol- 
itics in  Oregon.  The  speaker,  M.  M.  McCarver, 
had  not  at  first  attached  his  signature  to  the  copy  of 
the  organic  law  which  accompanied  the  memorial, 
because  he  was  opposed  to  the  amended  form.  Just 
before  White's  departure,  however,  he  clandestinely 
added  his  name  to  it  as  speaker  of  the  house.  As 
soon  as  White  had  started  on  his  journey,  Barton  Lee 
exposed  the  affair  to  the  house,  and  a  messenger  was 
sent  after  him  to  bring  back  the  documents.  The 
Indian  agent  defiantly  declined  to  relinquish  them, 
and  proceeded  on  his  journey.  This  ended  White's 
career  in  Oregon.  Resolutions  were  passed  declaring 
him  to  be  not  a  proper  person  to  fill  any  office  in  the 
country,  and  attested  copies  forwarded  to  Washing- 
ton, which  action,  with  the  changes  that  had  occurred 
in  the  capital,  defeated  his  aspirations. 

During  the  first  session  Governor  Abernethy  was 
in  the  Hawaiian  islands,  but  by  the  opening  of  the 
second  session  he  had  returned,  and  sent  in  his  first 
message.  In  1841  the  United  States  vessel  Peacock 

O 

was  lost  inside  the  bar  of  the  Columbia,  and  the  com- 
mander, Wilkes,  left  the  launch  with  all  its  rigging  in 
care  of  McLoughlin  until  called  for  by  some  person 
authorized  by  him  or  by  the  government  of  the  United 
States.  The  legislature,  however,  considered  that 
the  new  government  was  the  proper  custodian  of  the 
boat,  and  asked  McLoughlin  to  deliver  it  up,  which 
he  declined  to  do.  At  the  third  session  an  act  was 
passed  authorizing  the  governor  to  take  charge  of  the 
launch,  and  demand  possession  of  the  rigging.  Aber- 
nethy addressed  a  letter  to  McLoughlin  enclosing  a 
copy  of  the  act,  and  requesting  him  to  make  the  de- 
livery, McLoughlin  again  declined  to  surrender  the 
boat,  and  the  matter  threatened  to  become  serious. 
It  was  finally  settled  by  his  placing  the  launch  and 
its  rigging  in  the  hands  of  Lieutenant  Howison  of 
the  United  States  navy,  who  sold  it  to  a  Mr  Shelly 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  using  it  as  a  pilot  boat.  In 


542  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

this  affair  the  Oregon  legislature  acted  on  the  princi- 
ple that,  as  the  representatives  of  the  people,  they 
had  a  right  to  take  charge  of  the  United  States  prop- 
erty. 

Early  in  the  session  a  bill  was  passed  adopting  the 
statutes  of  Iowa  so  far  as  they  were  applicable  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  country,  and  the  next  step 
was  to  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  government  to 
the  territory  north  of  the  Columbia.  This  was  done 
by  creating  the  district  of  Vancouver,  embracing  all 
the  region  north  and  west  of  that  river.  And  now 
came  the  matter  of  apportionment,  in  which  connec- 
tion arose  the  important  question  whether  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  company  would  become  parties  to  the 
articles  of  the  compact  by  the  payment  of  taxes. 
The  subject  was  broached  to  McLoughlin  by  Apple- 
gate,  and  under  the  circumstances  the  former  deemed 
it  prudent  to  comply.  In  June  McLoughlin  had  re- 
ceived a  communication  from  the  directors  informing 
him  that  in  the  present  state  of  affairs  the  company 
would  receive  no  protection  from  the  government, 
and  must  protect  itself  as  best  it  could.  McLough- 
lin and  Douglas  considered  that  the  best  means  to 
secure  the  company's  property  would  be  to  join  the 
Americans  in  their  organization  of  government,  and 
agreed  to  do  so  provided  they  were  called  upon  to 
pay  taxes  only  on  their  sales  to  settlers.  This  con- 
dition was  accepted,  and  the  officers  of  the  fur  com- 
pany, with  all  the  British  residents,  became  parties 
to  the  compact.  In  the  election  of  officials  James 
Douglas  was  chosen  district  judge  for  three  years, 
and  John  R.  Jackson  was  made  sheriff  of  Vancouver 
district.  This  arrangement  was  most  opportune. 

A  few  days  after  McLoughlin  and  Douglas  had 
given  their  consent,  Captain  Park  of  the  royal  ma- 
rines arrived  from  Puget  sound  with  a  letter  from 
Admiral  Seymour  in  command  of  the  British  squad- 
ron in  the  Pacific,  informing  McLoughlin  that  pro- 
tection would  be  given  to  British  subjects  in  Oregon; 


JOHN  McLOUGHLIN.  5^3 

and  about  the  1st  of  October  the  Modeste,  Captain 
Baillie,  sent  by  the  admiral  for  that  purpose,  anchored 
in  front  of  Vancouver.  Had  this  occurred  a  short 
time  before,  McLoughlin  would  not  have  agreed  to 
the  union,  and  war  would  probably  have  been  the  re- 
sult. As  it  was,  his  conduct  was  severely  condemned 
by  the  authorities.  Among  other  accusations,  he  was 
charged  with  having  pursued  a  policy  which  encour- 
aged the  introduction  of  American  settlers  into  the 
country  until  they  outnumbered  the  British.  His 
answer  was  that  while  he  had  done  some  things  purely 
for  humanity's  sake,  he  had,  nevertheless,  always  in- 
tended to  avert,  and  had  averted,  a  collision  by  dis- 
playing courtesy  and  kindness  to  the  American  immi- 
grants. In  joining  the  political  organization,  he  had 
done  what  he  deemed  for  the  best,  no  less  the  best 
for  the  company  than  for  humanity.  In  1843  he  had 
informed  the  directors  of  the  threats  against  Fort 
Vancouver,  and  asked  for  protection ;  receiving  none, 
lie  did  not  see  how  he  could  have  acted  otherwise. 
And  now,  weary  of  a  responsibility  which  increasing 
years  made  doubly  burdensome,  and  feeling  himself 
somewhat  too  jealously  watched  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment, in  the  autumn  of  1845  he  tendered  his 
resignation,  and  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year 
took  up  his  residence  in  Oregon  City  with  the  inten- 
tion of  becoming  an  American  citizen.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded at  Fort  Vancouver  by  Peter  Skeen  Ogden, 
while  James  Douglas  was  established  in  command  of 
Victoria,  Vancouver  island. 

The  aspect  of  affairs  in  the  spring  of  1846  was  so 
significant  of  England's  intention  to  maintain  her 
claim  to  Oregon  that,  though  in  the  amended  organic 
law  the  subject  of  military  organization  had  been  neg- 
lected, some  spirited  citizens  called  a  meeting  at  the 
house  of  David  Waldo,  in  Champoeg  county,  and  or- 
ganized a  company  of  mounted  riflemen,  with  Charles 
Bennett  as  captain. 


544  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

About  the  same  time  the  British  frigate  Fisgard 
arrived  at  Nisqually,  there  to  remain  as  long  as  the 
war-cloud  threatened.  In  fact,  the  boundary  ques- 
tion had  now  reached  the  point  where  it  would  have 
to  be  settled,  and  England  finally  accepted  the  49th 
parallel.  During  the  process  of  adjustment,  and  be- 
fore the  cry  of  fifty-four  forty  or  fight  had  died  away? 
the  joy  and  exultation  of  the  colonists  were  un- 
bounded. But  when  copies  of  the  treaty  reached 
them,  and  it  was  realized  that  the  49th  parallel,  in- 
stead of  the  54°  40'  line,  was  the  boundary  agreed 
upon,  and  that  the  Hudson's  Bay  company  was  con- 
firmed in  the  possession  of  lands  and  other  property 
which  it  held  in  the  territory,  dissatisfaction  was  gen- 
eral. The  treaty  was  so  unpopular  in  Oregon  that 
instead  of  healing',  it  intensified  hostilities, 

A  memorial  to  congress  was  prepared  which,  after 
calling  attention  to  the  great  productiveness  of  the 
territory,  proceeded  to  state  that  the  colonists  had 
been  induced  to  undertake  the  difficult  journey  to 
Oregon  by  the  promise  of  the  government  that  their 
lands  should  be  secured  to  them,  and  they  asked  that 
their  claims  might  be  confirmed.  They,  moreover, 
required  schools,  a  steam  tug-boat  for  the  navigation 
of  the  Columbia,  and  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific,  and 
solicited  the  aid  of  government  to  procure  them. 

An  election  was  held  in  June  1847,  and  Abernethy 
again  chosen  governor.  He  was  a  native  of  Aber- 
deen, Scotland,  though  reared  under  American  insti- 
tutions; a  man  less  strong  than  politic;  indeed,  his 
strength  lay  in  the  direction  of  White's — adaptability 
and  persuasiveness.  He  was  very  careful  not  to 
offend  public  opinion,  either  in  a  religious  or  politi- 
cal point  of  view,  and  therefore  could  not  exercise 
much  influence  for  any  length  of  time.  Courteous 
in  demeanor,  he  was  reticent,  designing,  and  implac- 
able in  his  hatred,  as  weak  men  often  are. 

During  the  following  year  Cornelius  Gilliam  was 
appointed  superintendent  of  postal  affairs,  and  Charles 


POLITICAL  NOTABLES.  545 

E.  Pickett  Indian  agent.  Another  memorial  was 
mailed  to  the  general  government,  complaining  of  neg- 
lect. As  Oregon  could  not  agree  on  a  delegate  to 
Washington,  J.  Quinn  Thornton  secretly  departed 
thither  by  sea  as  agent  of  Abernethy.  This  made 
the  people  angry,  and  they  sent  Joseph  L.  Meek  over- 
land with  despatches.  Thornton  reached  Washing- 
ton on  the  llth  of  May,  1848.  The  letters  with 
which  he  had  been  provided  by  Abernethy  secured 
for  him  a  friendly  recognition,  and  but  for  the  appear- 
ance of  Meek,  the  duly  authorized  messenger  of  the 
colonial  government,  he  would  have  received  some 
consideration. 

On  the  arrival  of  Meek,  whose  mountain  costume 
and  rugged  appearance  attracted  much  attention  in 

Washington,   President  Polk  laid   before  congress   a 

... 
special  message  on  the  Oregon  question,  in  which  he 

quoted  some  passages  from  the  memorial  brought  by 
Meek,  touching  upon  the  neglect  of  congress.  Again 
he  called  attention  to  the  want  of  a  territorial  organ- 
ization, and  recommended  that  a  regiment  of  mounted 
men  should  be  raised  for  service  in  Oregon,  and  Ind- 
ian agents  appointed  for  the  different  tribes. 

On  the  31st  of  May  Senator  Bright  of  Indiana 
again  brought  up  the  Oregon  bill.  After  a  long  dis- 
cussion of  the  slavery  question,  on  August  2,  1848, 
the  bill  passed  the  house,  and  between  nine  and  ten 
o'clock  on  Sunday  morning,  August  13th,  it  passed 
the  senate,  after  an  all-night  session.  Thus  Oregon 
became  a  territory  of  the  United  States  on  her  own 
terms. 

Though  Oregon  had  been  granted  a  territorial 
organization,  nothing  was  done  on  the  all-important 
subject  of  land  claims,  except  to  secure  the  missions  in 
the  possession  of  640  acres  each,  and  deprive  every 
one  else  of  the  title  they  formerly  held  under  the 
provisional  government.  In  section  14  of  the  terri- 
torial act  it  is  provided  that  "  all  laws  heretofore 
passed  in  said  territory  making  grants  of  lands  .  .  . 

C.  B.— II.     35 


546  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

are  hereby  declared  to  be  null  and  void."  Nor  was 
anything  done  for  the  timely  relief  of  Oregon  in  the 
matter  of  troops  and  munitions  of  war. 

President  Polk,  who  had  been  elected  on  the  issues 
of  the  Oregon  question,  anxious  that  the  new  terri- 
tory should  be  established  during  his  administration, 
appointed  Joseph  Lane  of  Indiana,  governor,  with 
instructions  to  organize  the  government  before  the 
4th  of  March  following.  The  other  appointees  were 
Knitzing  Pritchetf  of  Pennsylvania,  secretary  ;  Wil- 
liam P.  Bryant  of  Indiana,  chief -justice  ;  William 
Strong  of  Ohio  and  O.  C.  Pratt,  associate  justices ; 
Amory  Holbrook,  United  States  attorney  ;  Joseph 
L.  Meek,  marshal  ;  and  John  Adair  of  Kentucky, 
collector  for  the  district  of  Oregon. 

On  August  20th  Meek  received  his  commission  as 
well  as  that  of  Governor  Lane,  to  whom  he  delivered 
it  on  the  27th,  and  on  the  29th  they  were  on  their 
way  to  Oregon.  Owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  season 
they  were  compelled  to  take  the  southern  route 
by  way  of  Santa  Fe  and  Tucson  to  California ;  and 
after  a  slow  and  toilsome  journey,  and  an  equally 
tedious  voyage,  they  reached  Oregon  City  March  2, 
1849. 

On  the  following  day  Governor  Lane  published  a 
proclamation  making  it  known  that  he  had  been 
appointed  governor  of  Oregon  Territory  and  had 
entered  upon  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  office, 
and  declaring  the  laws  of  the  United  States  to  be  in 
force  therein.  Thus  Oregon  enjoyed  one  day's  exist- 
ence under  the  administration  of  the  president  whose 
acts  were  so  closely  linked  with  her  history  in  the 
settlement  of  the  boundary  question. 

Without  noise  or  disturbance,  the  provincial  gov- 
ernment came  to  an  end,  and  with  its  extinction  died 
the  missions'  political  influence,  For  several  years 
the  head  and  front  of  this  party  had  been  Abernethy, 
who  after  the  change  in  affairs  accumulated  wealth 
by  business  ventures.  But  overreaching  himself, 


JOSEPH  LANE. 

after  some  years  of  prosperity,  he  lost  his  hold  on 
fortune,  and  became  involved  in  debt.  In  1861—2 
the  flood  which  devastated  Oregon  City  swept  away 
most  of  what  remained  of  his  property,  whereupon 
he  removed  to  Portland  and  there  remained  until  his 
death  in  1877. 

In  1842  threats  were  made  by  the  Nez  Perces  to 
exterminate  the  missionaries,  while  the  Cayuses  had 
an  evil  eye  on  the  settlers  of  the  Willamette,  as  well 
as  on  the  Whitman  family  at  Waiilatpu,  which  re- 
sulted in  the  massacre  of  1847.  Great  excitement 
prevailed  over  all  the  country.  A  military  force  was 
organized,  and  the  dogs  of  war  were  let  loose  ;  but  by 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  early  in  1848, 
avarice  gained  for  a  time  the  ascendency  over  revenge. 
The  hostile  tribes  were  visited  by  Governor  Lane  as 
soon  as  he  had  set  in  motion  the  machinery  of  his 
government  in  1849. 

Joseph  Lane  at  this  date  was  forty-eight  years  of 
age,  and  though  not  a  large  man,  possessed  a  strong 
constitution  and  a  tough  and  wiry  frame.  He  left 
his  parents'  home  in  North  Carolina,  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  to  seek  his  fortune,  settled  in  Indiana,  and 
married  when  only  nineteen.  Then  followed  a  sharp 
but  brief  struggle  with  poverty,  which  his  thrift  and 
industry  quickly  overcame.  His  rare  gift  of  tongue 
soon  made  him  a  man  of  mark,  and  he  was  elected 
captain  of  the  local  militia.  This  distinction  spurred 
his  ambition,  a.nd  he  devoted  all  his  spare  hours  to 
self-education,  studying  while  others  slept.  His  first 
business  venture  was  the  purchase  of  a  flat-boat  in 
which  he  carried  freight  on  the  Ohio.  While  still 
young  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  of  Indiana, 
first  to  the  house  and  then  to  the  senate.  On  the 
outbreak  of  the  Mexican  war  he  enlisted  as  a  private 
in  the  2d  Indiana  volunteers,  and  when  the  regiment 
assembled,  was  chosen  its  colonel,  being  afterward 
commissioned  brigadier-general.  After  its  conclusion 
he  was  appointed  governor  of  Oregon. 


548  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

On  July  16th  the  first  territorial  legislature  as- 
sembled at  Oregon  City.  According  to  the  act  es- 
tablishing the  government,  it  consisted  of  nine  coun- 
cilmen  of  three  classes,  whose  terms  expired  with  the 
first,  second,  and  third  years  respectively,  and  eighteen 
members  of  the  house  of  representatives,  who  served 
for  one  year.  Provision,  however,  was  made  by  the 
law  for  an  increase  in  the  number  of  representatives 
from  time  to  time,  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 
qualified  voters,  u^til  the  maximum  of  thirty  should 
be  reached. 

Lane's  suggestions  as  to  the  wants  of  the  territory 
were  practical.  The  most  important  of  his  recom- 
mendations was  the  one  with  reference  to  the  expected 
donation  of  land,  for  which  a  memorial  was  made  to 
congress.  Other  requests  contained  in  the  memorial 
related  to  school  lands;  to  military  and  post  roads; 
the  extinction  of  Indian  titles,  and  the  removal  of 
the  natives  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  white  set- 
tlements. Attention  was  also  called  to  the  difficulties 
existing  between  American  citizens  and  the  Puget 
Sound  Agricultural  company,  the  boundaries  of  whose 
extensive  claim  were  undefined  and  imaginary.  The 
government  was  requested  to  purchase  the  lands 
rightfully  held  by  treaty  in  order  to  put  an  end  to 
disputes.  The  next  matter  attended  to  was  the  lay- 
ing out  of  the  judicial  districts.  It  was  decreed  that 
the  first  should  consist  of  Clackamas,  Marion,  and 
Linn  counties;  the  second  of  Benton,  Polk,  Yamhill, 
and  Washington;  and  the  third  of  Clarke,  Clatsop, 
and  Lewis.  On  September  29th  the  legislature 
adjourned. 

In  the  autumn  a  rifle  regiment  arrived  which  had 
been  enrolled  for  the  protection  of  Oregon.  It  had 
come  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  numbered  about 
600  men,  with  thirty-one  commissioned  officers,  under 
the  command  of  Brevet-colonel  W.  W.  Loring.  Two 
posts  were  established  on  the  way,  one  at  the  fur- 
trading  station  of  Fort  Laramie,  and  another  called 


MILITARY   MATTERS.  549. 

Cantonment  Loring,  three  miles  above  Fort  Hall  on 
Snake  river.  The  troops  were  quartered  in  Oregon 
City,  and  kept  there  at  great  expense  and  with  much 
disturbance  of  the  peace. 

Soon  after  Major  Hathaway  landed  his  artillery- 
men, Major  Ingalls  arrived  at  Vancouver  with  in- 
structions to  establish  military  posts  in  Oregon.  For 
the  erection  of  barracks  at  Vancouver,  Hathaway 
leased  land  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  company,  pending 
the  purchase  by  the  United  States  of  the  company's 
possessory  rights.  This  was  also  done  at  Fort 
Steilacoom,  where  Captain  Hill  established  himself 
in  August.  At  the  end  of  September,  General  Per- 
sifer  F.  Smith,  in  command  of  the  Pacific  division, 
arrived  in  Oregon  from  California  and  approved  of 
the  selections.  Smith  had  the  welfare  of  the  terri- 
tory at  heart,  and  made  many  excellent  recommenda- 
tions to  the  government. 

With  the  organization  of  the  territory,  and  the 
introduction  of  United  States  troops,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  appoint  government  reservations.  The  first 
one  selected  was  Miller  island  in  the  Columbia,  five 
miles  above  Vancouver.  This  reserve  was  declared 
in  February,  1850,  and  was  followed  by  others 
at  Vancouver,  the  Dalles,  and  Milwaukee,  on  the 
land  claims  of  Meek  and  Luelling.  This  appropria- 
tion of  property  gave  rise  to  much  complaint,  and  was 
resented  by  the  founders  of  Oregon  as  an  encroach- 
ment upon  their  rights. 

Ever  since  the  arrival   of  Governor  Lane  negotia- 

O 

tions  had  been  carried  on  for  the  voluntary  surrender 
of  the  Cayuse  murderers  by  their  tribe.  It  was 
clearly  represented  to  them  that  they  need  not  hope 
for  peace  and  friendship  until  the  guilty  parties  had 
been  given  up.  At  last  in  the  spring  of  1850  word 
was  received  that  such  of  the  culprits  as  were  not 
already  dead  would  be  delivered  at  the  Dalles.  Lane 
went  there  in  person  to  receive  them.  There  were 
five  in  all,  Tiloukaikt,  Tamahas,  Klokamas,  Isaiacha- 


550  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

lakis,  and  Kiamasumpkin.  On  May  22d  they  were 
tried  at  Oregon  City,  the  prosecution  being  conducted 
by  Amory  Holbrook,  district  attorney.  The  trial 
lasted  two  days,  resulting  in  a  verdict  of  guilty. 
Sentence  of  death  was  passed  by  Judge  Pratt,  the 
3d  of  June  being  appointed  as  the  day  for  their  exe- 
cution. Catholic  priests  took  charge  of  the  spiritual 
affairs  of  the  condemned,  who  at  the  fatal  hour  met 
their  doom  with  true  Indian  stoicism.  Thus  justice, 
though  slow  of  foot,  pursued  to  their  destruction  the 
perpetrators  of  the  Whitman  massacre. 

The  first  delegate  to  congress  was  Samuel  R. 
Thurston,  who  was  elected  on  the  issue  of  the  anti- 
Hudson's  Bay  company  sentiment.  During  1849 
most  of  the  Canadian  voters  and  the  young  and  in- 
dependent western  men  were  absent.  This  opportunity 
was  not  lost  by  the  missionary  element,  which  returned 
their  democratic  candidate  by  a  large  majority  over 
his  whig  opponent  Nesmith. 

Thurston  was  a  native  of  Monmouth,  Maine,  and 
graduated  in  1843  from  Bowdoin  college,  after  which 
he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  Brunswick,  where 
he  was  soon  admitted  to  practise.  A  natural  parti- 
san, he  became  an  ardent  democrat,  and  was  riot  only 
fearless  but  aggressive  in  his  career  as  a  political 
leader.  In  1845  he  removed  to  Burlington,  Iowa, 
where  he  edited  the  Burlington  Gazette  until  1847, 
when  he  migrated  to  Oregon.  He  was  a  man  of 
marked  ability,  gifted  with  great  power  of  language, 
with  ease  fully  commanding  his  audiences,  and  could, 
when  the  occasion  required  it,  be  eloquent  and  impres- 
sive, with  no  small  sprinkling  of  sarcasm  and  invective. 

When  in  congress  he  made  a  vigorous  attack  on 
the  possessory  right  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  company, 
and  introduced  a  number  of  resolutions  designed  for 
the  purpose  of  putting  an  end  to  the  company's 
very  existence  in  Oregon.  Indeed  from  first  to  last, 
whatever  may  have  been  his  motives,  whether  per- 
sonal or  patriotic,  he  acted  throughout  with  cease- 


SAMUEL  R.    THURSTON.  551 

less  hostility  to  every  interest  of  the  fur  company,  and 
to  every  individual  in  any  way  connected  with  it. 
He  worked  with  extraordinary  persistency,  and  with 
consummate  tact  and  diplomacy,  for  the  passage  of 
the  donation  land  lawT  in  such  a  form  as  would  ex- 
clude British  subjects  from  its  benefits,  and  deprive 
McLoughlin  of  his  claim  at  the  falls  of  the  Wil- 
lamette. 

The  treatment  of  their  benefactor,  John  McLough- 
lin, by  the  pioneer  methodists  of  Oregon,  and  their 
partisans,  will  ever  remain  a  foul  blot  upon  their 
memory,  and  a  stain  on  their  religion.  McLoughlin 
died  September  3,  1857,  at  the  age  of  seventy -three 
years.  In  his  last  illness  the  unhappy  old  man  be- 
trayed the  bitterness  of  heart  which  his  enemies  had 
inspired  even  in  his  kindly  nature.  Shortly  before 
his  death  he  said  to  Grover,  then  a  young  man,  "  I 
shall  live  but  a  little  while  longer,  I  am  an  old  man 
and  dying,  and  you  are  a  young  man  and  will  live 
many  years  in  this  country.  As  for  me  I  might  bet- 
ter have  been  shot — I  might  better  have  been  shot 
forty  years  ago  1 "  then,  after  a  pause — "  than  to 
have  lived  here,  and  tried  to  build  up  a  family  and 
estate  under  this  government.  I  became  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  in  good  faith.  I  planted  all  I  had 
here,  and  the  government  has  confiscated  my  prop- 
erty." He  then  requested  Grover  to  use  his  influ- 
ence to  obtain  the  property  for  his  children.  With 
tardy  justice  the  Oregon  legislature  finally  surrend- 
ered the  property  to  McLoughlin's  heirs,  thus  con- 
firming the  charge  of  injustice  upon  the  religionists 
who  despoiled  him 

Meanwhile,  Thurston,  though  reviled  in  the  public 
prints  toiled  on,  using  every  effort  to  win  favor  with 
the  people,  and  secure  his  reelection.  He  exerted  him- 
self to  save  Meek's  land  claim  from  being  made  a  gov- 
ernment reservation ;  he  secured  for  the  Pacific  coast  a 
postage  rate  uniform  with  that  of  the  Atlantic  states ; 
and  obtained  appropriations  for  Oregon  amounting  to 


552  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

$190,000,  of  which  sum  8100,000  were  for  the  expenses 
of  the  Cayuse  war.  Nevertheless,  a  reaction  was 
setting  in  and  all  generous- minded  men  began  to 
realize  that  there  were  others  who  could  represent  the 
public  interests  in  congress  without  disgracing  the 
country.  The  consequence  was  that  Lane  was 
brought  forward  as  an  opposing  candidate.  But  the 
hand  of  death  already  overshadowed  Thurston,  and 
screened  him  from  the  humiliation  of  defeat.  Eaten 
up  of  ambition,  his  health  had  long  been  failincr.  and  as 
he  had  not  spared  himself,  ill  or  well,  he  rapidly  suc- 
cumbed. He  breathed  his  last  at  sea  on  board  the 
California  off  Acapulco,  on  his  return  to  Oregon,  be- 
ing then,  April  9,  1851,  thirty-five  years  of  age. 

The  successor  to  Governor  Lane  was  General  John 
P.  Gaines,  with  General  Edward  Hamilton  as  secre- 
tarv,  and  Strong  iudcre  of  the  third  district.  He 

*/    -  O  *     *j  O 

arrived  in  Oregon  August  15,  1850.  General  Gaines 
was  born  in  Augusta,  Virginia,  in  September,  1795, 
removing  in  early  youth  to  Boone  county,  Kentucky, 
which  state  he  represented  in  congress  from  1847  to 
1849.  He  volunteered  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  took 
part  in  several  engagements.  He  served  also  in  the 
Mexican  war  and  received  his  appointment  as  gov- 
ernor of  Oregon  on  his  return.  His  arrival  was  not 
very  welcome  to  the  democrats,  who  sincerely  re- 
gretted the  removal  of  Lane,  whom  Gaines  was  very 
dissimilar  to  in  character.  Phlegmatic  in  tempera- 
ment, he  was  fastidious  as  to  his  personal  surroundings, 
a  vain  and  narrow-minded  man,  pompous,  pretentious, 
and  jealous  of  his  dignity.  The  spirit  with  which  the 
democracy  received  this  whig  governor  was  ominous 
of  the  partisan  warfare  which  quickly  followed. 

When  the  legislature  met  on  December  2d,  the 
most  important  matter  decided  on  was  the  location  of 
the  capital,  which  was  the  subject  of  lively  contest, 
as  was  also  the  expenditure  of  the  appropriations  for 
the  erection  of  public  buildings.  After  a  warm  com- 


GOVERNORS  DAVIS  AND  CURRY.  553 

petition,  Salem  was  made  the  seat  of  the  government, 
Corvallis  was  given  the  university,  and  Portland  the 
penitentiary. 

Upon  the  death  of  Thurston,  Lane  was  made  dele- 
gate. The  question  of  location  of  the  capital  led  to 
the  organization  of  a  democratic  party  in  the  spring 
of  1852,  forcing  the  whigs  to  nominate  a  ticket.  In 
1850  congress  passed  an  act  extinguishing  Indian 
titles  west  of  the  Cascade  mountains,  and  appointed 
Anson  Dart,  of  Wisconsin,  superintendent  of  Indian 
affairs.  Three  commissioners  were  appointed  to  make 
treaties,  Hostilities  broke  out  on  Rogue  river,  and 
the  Indians  were  punished  severely,  Gaines,  Lane, 
and  Kearney  figuring  in  the  affair. 

While  at  Washington  in  1853  Lane  was  again  ap- 
pointed governor  of  Oregon,  where  he  arrived  May 
16th.  He  soon  resigned  his  position,  however,  and 
was  again  returned  to  the  federal  capital  as  delegate. 
Late  in  October  intelligence  was  received  that  John 
W.  Davis,  of  Indiana,  had  been  appointed  governor. 
He  arrived  at  Salem  December  2d,  bringing  with  him 
$40,000  for  the  erection  of  a  capitol  and  penitentiary. 

Davis  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  where  he 
studied  medicine.  Having  settled  in  Indiana,  he 
served  in  the  legislature  of  that  state,  and  was  three 
times  elected  to  congress,  during  the  period  between 
1835  and  1847.  During  his  short  term  of  office, 
which  only  lasted  eight  months,  he  displayed  a  pru- 
dence and  discretion  in  his  relations  with  the  legisla- 
ture that  were  in  strong  contrast  with  the  officious 
interference  by  which  Gaines  had  so  much  offended 
that  body.  Davis  was  really  a  good  man  and  a 
democrat  withal;  yet  George  Law  Curry  stood  so 
high  in  the  estimation  of  the  people  of  Oregon,  that 
the  former  was  advised  to  resign,  in  order  that  the 
latter  might  be  appointed  governor.  This  he  did  in 
August  1854,  and  returned  to  the  east,  where  he  died 
about  five  years  later,  Curry  receiving  his  appoint- 
ment in  November  1855, 


554  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

The  legislature  of  1853-4  enacted  a  militia  law, 
constituting  Oregon  a  military  district,  and  requiring 
the  appointment  by  the  governor  of  a  brigadier-gen- 
eral and  other  officers.  Accordingly  in  April  1854, 
Governor  Davis  appointed  J.  W.  Nesmith  to  this 
position,  with  E.  M.  Barnum,  adjutant-general ; 
M.  M.  McCarver,  commissary-general  ;  and  S.  C. 
Drew,  quartermaster-general.  The  business  of  the 
session  was,  in  the  main,  unimportant,  though  it  is 
worthy  of  remark  that  four  railroad  companies 
received  charters ;  but  as  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe 
for  the  construction  of  railways,  no  steps  were  taken 
to  carry  out  the  intentions  of  the  recipients. 

In  congress  Lane  was  successful  in  the  matter  of 
appropriations,  obtaining  money  for  the  expenses  of 
the  Rogue  river  war,  as  well  as  $10,000  to  continue 
the  military  road  from  Myrtle  creek  to  Scottsburg, 
and  $10,000  in  addition  to  a  former  appropriation  of 
$15,000,  for  the  construction  of  a  light-house  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Umpqua. 

Governor  Curry  was  the  favorite  of  that  portion  of 
the  democratic  party  known  as  the  Salem  clique. 
He  was  well  suited  to  the  position  in  which  he  was 
placed,  and  with  its  duties  his  experience  as  secretary 
had  made  him  fully  conversant.  He  was  a  Philadel- 
phian  by  birth,  but  his  father  dying  when  he  was 
only  eleven  years  old,  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  jeweler 
in  Boston,  finding  time  for  study  and  literary  pursuits, 
for  which  he  had  a  decided  taste.  In  1843,  being 
then  twenty -three  }Tears  of  age,  he  removed  to  St 
Louis,  where,  with  other  literary  men,  he  published 
the  Reveille.  Curry  migrated  to  Oregon  in  1846. 
His  private  life  was  without  reproach,  and  his  habits 
were  those  of  a  man  of  letters.  His  public  career 
was  marked  by  liberality,  a  courteous  demeanor,  and 
sterling  probity  of  character.  After  living  to  see 
Oregon  develop  into  a  thriving  state,  he  died  July  28, 
1878,  Such  was  the  man  chosen  to  be  governor  of 


JOEL  PALMER.  555 

Oregon  during  the  remainder  of  her  territorial  exist- 
ence, the  most  trying  period  of  her  history. 

Early  in  April  1855  Lane  returned  to  Oregon  and 
was  again  elected  delegate  by  the  democrats,  notwith- 
standing that  the  whigsand  know-nothings  had  united 
against  the  democracy,  with  ex-Governor  Gaines  as 
their  candidate.  The  native  American  party  was 
largely  made  up  of  the  missionary  and  anti- Hudson's 
Bay  company  factions,  which  now  took  the  opportunity 
furnished  by  the  rise  of  the  new  party,  to  express 
their  long-cherished  antipathies  toward  the  foreign 
element.  Their  intemperate  denunciations,  however, 
of  foreign-born  settlers  and  the  catholic  religion 
made  them  odious  to  right-thinking  people,  and  the 
democratic  party  did  not  fail  to  give  utterance  to  their 
honest  disgust  at  the  bigotry  and  cant  with  which 
their  principles  were  promulgated. 

In  October  1854  Indian  superintendent  Joel 
Palmer,  who  had  succeeded  Dart,  was  able  to  inform 
the  natives  of  southern  Oregon  that  congress  had  rati- 
fied the  treaties  made  at  the  close  of  the  war  of  1853, 
and  by  February  1,  1855,  all  lands  between  the  Co- 
lumbia and  the  Calapooya  mountains,  and  between  the 
sea-coast  and  Cascade  ranges,  had  been  purchased  for 
the  United  States,  the  Indians  agreeing  to  remove  to 
other  localities  which  were  to  be  selected  for  them. 
The  reservation  finally  selected  was  the  country  lying 
west  of  the  Coast  range. 

No  attempt  had  as  yet  been  made  to  treat  with  the 
Indians  east  of  the  Cascade  moun tains  for  the  pur- 
chase of  their  lands,  but  in  this  year  Governor  Ste- 
vens of  Washington  Territory,  and  Palmer,  who  had 
been  appointed  commissioners  by  congress,  made 
treaties  with  the  Nez  Perces,  Yakimas,  Cayuses, 
Walla  Wallas,  and  Umatillas.  Separate  reservations 
were  assigned  to  the  Nez  Perces  and  Yakimas,  while 
the  Cayuses,  Walla  Wallas,  and  Umatillas  were  col- 
lected on  one  reservation  in  the  beautiful  Umatilla 
country.  Palmer  then  treated  with  the  John  Day, 


55G  GOVERNMENT— OREGON, 

Des  Chutes,  and  Wascopan  Indians,  purchasing  all 
the  lands  lying  between  the  summit  of  the  Cascade 
range  and  Powder  river,  and  between  the  44th  parallel 
and  the  Columbia.  A  reservation  was  set  apart  for 
these  tribes  at  the  base  of  the  Cascade  mountains,  di- 
rectly east  of  mount  Jefferson.  Although  the  super- 
intendent hoped  that  at  last  he  had  procured  peace  for 
Oregon,  war  was  again  brewing  before  midsummer, 
1855,  in  the  southern  part  of  Oregon,  tribes  of  the 
Rogue  river  nation  being  the  immediate  cause. 

Hard-contested  battles  were  fought,  in  which  the 
natives  were  generally  defeated,  though  the  Ameri- 
cans had  not  always  cause  for  congratulation.  Fresh 
troops  were  called  into  the  field  by  proclamation  of 
Governor  Curry,  and  a  large  force  of  regulars  ap- 
peared upon  the  scene.  General  Wool  visited  Ore- 
gon and  organized  a  campaign,  and  the  war  was 
bitterly  carried  on  under  the  active  operations  of  gen- 
erals Lamerick  and  Ord.  The  volunteer  companies 
were  not  idle  meantime,  and  a  multiplicity  of  battles 
was  the  result  of  their  eager  pursuit  of  the  foe. 

The  last  important  conflict  occurred  May  27th  and 
28th,  Captain  Smith  in  command  of  Fort  Lane, 
which  had  been  established  near  Table  rock,  with 
eighty  men,  dragoons  and  infantry,  being  furiously  as- 
sailed by  Chief  John  on  the  bank  of  the  Illinois,  a 
branch  of  Rogue  river.  But  for  the  timely  arrival 
of  Captain  Augur,  Smith's  command  would  probably 
have  been  annihilated.  As  it  was,  he  lost  twenty- 
four  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  Augur  two  men 
killed  and  three  wounded,  making  a  total  loss  of 
twenty-nine. 

Superintendent  Palmer  labored  hard  for  the  public 
good,  and  during  his  term  of  office  removed  from  the 
Willamette  valley  about  4,000  Indians.  Neverthe- 
less, being  of  the  American  party,  no  matter  how 
honestly  and  conscientiously  he  worked,  he  could  not 
please  the  democratic  legislature,  which  in  the  spring 
of  1856  petitioned  for  his  removal.  He  was  sue- 


STATE  ORGANIZATION.  557 

ceeded  by  A.  F.  Hedges,  an  immigrant  of  1843. 
Palmer  ran  for  governor  of  Oregon  in  1870,  but  was 
defeated  by  L.  F.  Grover.  He  died  in  1879  at  his 
home  in  Dayton. 

Very  little  business  was  transacted  by  the  legisla- 
ture of  1855-6,  but  during  the  latter  year  republican 
sentiments  grew  apace,  and  when  the  assembly  met 
in  December,  though  it  was  still  largely  democratic, 
there  were  enough  opposition  members  to  infuse  life 
into  the  new  movement  which  had  been  inaugurated 
to  exclude  slavery  from  a  free  territory.  Another 
question  which  was  evidently  destined  to  arouse  a 
close  contest  was  the  exclusion  of  free  negroes  from 
Oregon.  At  this  session  an  act  was  again  passed  to 
take  the  sense  of  the  people  with  regard  to  the  hold- 
ing of  a  constitutional  convention. 

Republican  clubs  continued  to  be  formed,  and  on 
February  11,  1857,  a  convention  was  held  at  Albany, 
and  the  free  state  republican  party  of  Oregon  was  or- 
ganized, the  main  principles  of  which  were  announced 
to  be  :  the  perpetuity  of  the  American  union  ;  resist- 
ance to  the  extension  of  slavery  in  free  territory  ;  the 
prohibition  of  polygamy ;  the  admission  of  Oregon 
into  the  union  only  as  a  free  state  ;  and  the  necessitv 
of  all  honest  men,  irrespective  of  party,  uniting  to  se- 
cure the  adoption  of  a  free  state  constitution  in  Or- 
egon. 

In  conformity  with  the  instructions  of  the  legisla- 
ture, Lane  had  brought  before  congress  a  bill  for  the 
admission  of  Oregon  into  the  union,  and  in  the  session 
of  1856-7  a  bill  authorizing  the  people  to  form  a  con- 
stitution and  state  government  passed  the  lower 
house,  but  failed  in  the  senate.  Such  was  the  posi- 
tion of  affairs  in  the  spring  of  1857,  the  territory 
being  half  admitted  as  a  state. 

In  June  1857  was  held  the  most  important  election 
that  hitherto  occurred.  The  people  were  now  called 
upon  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  state,  and  decide 
upon  matters  affecting  the  interests  of  the  common- 


558  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

wealth  for  all  time.  Lane  was  again  returned  dele- 
gate to  congress,  defeating  the  free-soil  democrat,  G. 
W.  Lawson,  supported  by  the  republican  party  ;  and 
7,617  votes  were  cast  in  favor  of  a  constitutional  con- 
vention, with  1,679  against  it. 

O 

The  convention  assembled  August  17th  at  Salem, 
and  continued  in  session  four  weeks.  More  than  one- 
third  of  the  delegates  were  republican,  but  the  de- 
bates on  all  subjects  were  conducted  with  fairness 
and  deliberation.  With  regard  to  the  all-important 
questions  of  slavery  and  the  admission  of  free  negroes, 
it  was  agreed  to  leave  their  decision  to  the  people. 
Most  of  the  provisions  of  the  constitution  framed  by 
this  convention  were  wise  and  politic,  though  a  little 
more  liberality  might  have  been  displayed  with  re- 
gard to  the  immigration  of  white  aliens,  which  the 
legislature  was  granted  the  power  to  control,  and  also 
to  the  status  of  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  Chinamen, 
who  were  excluded  from  the  right  of  suffrage. 

O  O 

On  November  9th  the  people  decided  at  the  polls 
upon  the  constitution  and  the  other  questions.  About 
10,400  votes  were  polled.  The  vote  on  the  constitu- 
tion resulted  in  a  majority  of  3,980  in  favor  of  its 
adoption.  Against  slavery  there  was  a  majority  of 
5,082,  and  against  the  admission  of  free  negroes  into 
the  territory  one  of  7,559  votes.  The  fact  is  that 
the  democrats,  when  they  found  that  they  could  not 
have  the  negro  among  them  as  a  slave,  were  deter- 

O  O 

mined  that  they  would  not  have  him  at  all. 

The  legislature  of  1857-8  labored  under  the  dis- 
advantage of  not  knowing  how  to  conform  its  pro- 
ceedings to  the  will  of  the  general  government. 
Although  not  yet  admitted  into  the  union,  a  portion 
of  the  members  were  in  favor  of  regarding  their  as- 
sembly as  a  state  body.  After  the  transaction  of 
some  miscellaneous  business,  the  legislature  adjourned 
December  19th,  to  meet  again  on  January  5,  1858. 

In  anticipation  of  admission  to  statehood,  at  the 
June  election  of  that  year  a  state  legislature  and 


PROMINENT  OFFICIALS.  559 

government  officers  were  chosen.  There  were  three 
parties  in  the  field,  the  Oregon  democrats,  the  national 
democrats,  and  the  republicans,  the  thorough  organi- 
zation of  the  first-named  faction  securing  for  it  the 
victory.  L.  F.  Grover  was  elected  state  representa- 
tive to  congress ;  John  Whiteaker  governor ;  Lucien 
Heath  secretary  ;  J.  D.  Boon  treasurer;  and  Asabel 
Bush  state  printer.  The  district  judges  chosen  were 
Deady,  Stratton,  Boise,  and  Wait.  The  only  repub- 
lican elected  was  Mitchell,  prosecuting  attorney  for 
the  2d  district,  A.  C.  Gibbs,  H.  Jackson,  D.  W. 
Douthitt,  and  B.  Hayden  being  those  chosen  for  the 
1st.  3rd,  4th,  and  5th  districts.  The  state  legislature 
consisted  of  twenty -nine  democrats  and  five  republi- 
cans in  the  lower  house,  and  twelve  democrats  and 
four  republicans  in  the  senate.  According  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  constitution,  the  state  legislature 
met  July  5th  and  chose  Joseph  Lane  and  Delazon 
Smith  United  States  senators.  On  the  8th  Governor 
Whiteaker  was  inaugurated,  Judge  Boise  administer- 
ing the  oath. 

Oregon  had  placed  herself  in  an  anomalous  position, 
for  in  four  weeks'  time  it  became  known  that  she  had 
not  been  admitted.  It  was,  therefore,  determined 
not  to  hold  the  September  term  of  the  state  legisla- 
ture, and  as  the  territorial  administration  must  con- 
tinue during  the  suspension  of  the  state  government, 
the  usual  session  of  the  legislature  was  held  in  De- 
cember and  January.  Little  business,  however,  was 
transacted,  beyond  amending  a  few  previous  acts,  and 
preparing  memorials  to  congress,  with  petitions  re- 
specting roads,  the  mail  service,  and  other  matters. 
On  January  22d  the  assembly  adjourned. 

The  admission  of  Oregon  was  warmly  agitated  in 
congress,  and  the  democratic  party,  aided  by  certain 
republicans,  finally  succeeded  in  securing  the  passage  of 
the  enabling  bill  on  February  12,  1859,  the  president 
approving  it  on  the  14th,  on  which  day  Lane  and 
Smith  presented  their  credentials  to  the  senate,  and 


560  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

were  sworn  in,  the  seat  of  the  latter  becoming  vacant 
in  less  than  a  month.  Thus  Oregon  was  at  last  en- 
throned as  a  sovereign  state,  the  news  of  which  event 
arrived  toward  the  close  of  March. 

The  congressional  act  of  March  3,  1859,  extending 
the  laws  and  judicial  system  of  the  United  States  over 
Oregon,"  provided  for  the  appointment  of  one  United 
States  judge,  Matthew  P.  Deady  being  chosen  to  fill 
that  office.  His  former  position  as  district  judge  was 
filled  by  P.  P.  Prim.  As  it  was  uncertain  whether 
the  decisions  of  the  district  judges  would  be  valid 
under  the  act  passed  by  the  state  legislature  before 
the  admission  of  Oregon,  on  May  16th  Governor 
Whiteaker  convened  the  legislature,  which  proceeded 
to  complete  the  state  organization  and  regulate  the 
judiciary.  Having  passed  a  few  acts,  one  of  which 
called  for  a  special  election  to  be  held  June  27th  for 
the  choice  of  a  representative  to  congress,  the  legis- 
lature adjourned. 

On  the  21st  of  April  of  this  year  the  republicans 
met  in  convention,  and  having  brought  forward  their 
platform,  proceeded  to  ballot  for  a  representative  to 
congress,  David  Logan  receiving  a  majority  of  votes. 
The  democratic  nominee  was  Lansing  Stout,  who  at 
the  election  defeated  Logan  by  only  sixteen  votes — a 
result  which  astonished  both  parties,  and  clearly  in- 
dicated the  waning  influence  of  the  democracy. 

According  to  the  provisions  of  the  state  constitu- 
tion, the  legislature  and  state  officers  were  to  be 
elected  biennially,  on  the  first  Monday  in  June.  As 
the  first  election  was  held  in  1858,  the  next  could  not 
take  place  before  June  1860.  At  that  election 
George  K.  Sheil  was  chosen  representative  to  con- 
gress, defeating  Logan,  who  was  again  the  republican 
candidate,  by  104  votes. 

The  candidates  for  the  senatorships  were  Delazon 
Smith  and  Lane,  democrats;  Judge  Williams  and  J. 
W.  Nesmith,  independents;  and  E.  D.  Baker,  repub- 


JOSEPH   LANE.  561 

lican.  The  democrats  soon  realized  the  fact  that  they 
would  be  unable  to  return  two  senators  without  ac- 
cepting Smith,  who  had  fallen  into  great  disfavor 
through  his  adherence  to  Lane,  who  was  already  de- 
throned in  public  opinion.  Indeed,  the  legislature 
of  1859  had  preferred  to  leave  Smith's  seat  vacant 
rather  than  re-appoint  him.  Accordingly,  Nesmith 
and  Baker  were  elected,  the  latter  for  the  short  term. 

Joseph  Lane  was  aspiring  to  the  presidency  of  the 
United  States,  and  blinded  by  partisan  zeal  and  the 
flattery  of  southern  men,  staked  everything  on  the 
desperate  hazard  of  being  nominated  at  the  national 
convention  to  be  held  at  Charleston  in  1860.  At  the 
same  time  he  lent  himself  to  an  unscrupulous  scheme 
said  to  be  entertained  by  the  senators  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  which  was  to  establish  a  slave-holding  republic, 
similar  to  the  ancient  republic  of  Venice,  the  plan, 
while  it  provided  for  an  elective  executive,  vesting  all 
power  in  hereditary  nobles.  Universal  suffrage  was 
to  be  repudiated,  and  labor  was  to  be  performed  by 
persons  of  the  dark  races,  who,  being  invited  to  Cali- 
fornia, were  to  be  reduced  to  slavery.  The  discovery 
of  this  plot  caused  mingled  indignation  and  alarm. 

When  the  news  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Charles- 
ton convention,  of  the  secession  of  the  extreme  south* 
ern  states,  and  their  nomination  of  Lane  to  the  vice- 
presidency,  reached  Oregon,  a  strong  revulsion  of 
feeling  set  in  among  all  of  the  democratic  party  who 
were  not  strongly  pro-slavery  in  principle.  Slowly 
and  reluctantly  the  people  realized  that  Joseph  Lane 
had  betrayed  them.  Before  November  6th  intelli- 
gence arrived  of  great  republican  victories  in  the 
north  and  west,  and  on  that  day  the  vote  was  cast 
for  president.  By  the  9th  it  became  certain  that  the 
state  had  gone  republican.  On  December  5th  the 
republican  presidential  electors,  T.  J.  Dryer,  W.  H. 
Watkins,  and  B.  J.  Pengra  met  at  Salem  and  cast 
the  electoral  vote  for  Lincoln,  Dryer  being  appointed 
to  carry  the  news  to  Washington, 

" 


562  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

Tidings  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  did  not  reach 
Oregon  until  April  30,  1861.  By  the  same  steamer 
which  brought  intelligence  of  the  breaking  out  of  hos- 
tilities, Lane  arrived  and  met  with  a  fitting  reception. 
At  Portland  indignities  were  heaped  upon  him,  while 
at  Dallas  he  was  hanged  in  effigy.  He  retired  into 
obscurity,  living  for  many  years  on  a  mountain  farm 
with  but  a  single  servant.  In  1878,  at  the  persua- 
sion of  his  children,  he  removed  to  Rosebury,  Doug- 
las county,  and  being  heartily  welcomed,  in  1880,  at 
the  age  of  seventy -nine  years,  nominated  himself  for 
state  senator,  but  was  somewhat  rudely  rejected  and 
reproved.  He  did  not  long  survive  this  rebuff,  which 
moved  the  aged  politician  to  tears.  His  death  oc- 
curred in  May  of  the  following  year. 

The  first  telegraphic  despatches  transmitted  across 
the  continent  conveyed  the  intelligence  that  E.  D. 
Baker,  Oregon's  republican  senator,  had  fallen  at  the 
battle  of  Ball  Bluff,  on  October  21,  1861.  Baker 
was  an  Englishman  by  birth,  being  born  in  London, 
in  1811.  When  five  years  of  age  he  came  to  Amer- 
ica, where  he  learned  cabinet-making,  and  afterward 
studied  law  in  Carrollton,  Illinois.  For  ten  years  he 
was  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  that  state,  and  in 
1845  was  elected  representative  in  congress.  During 
the  war  with  Mexico  he  fought  under  Taylor  on  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  later  was  present  at  the  capture  of 
Vera  Cruz  and  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  where  he 
took  command  of  General  Shields'  division,  after  that 
officer  was  seriously  wounded.  In  1852  he  arrived  in 
California,  where  he  practised  law,  and  thence  removed 
to  Oregon. 

Baker's  vacant  seat  in  the  senate  was  filled  by  the 
appointment  of  Benjamin  Stark,  by  Governor  White- 
aker.  Stark's  disloyal  proclivities  caused  the  senate 
to  hesitate  before  admitting  him,  and  after  he  had 
been  allowed  to  take  the  oath  of  office  in  February 
1862,  he  was  finally  impeached.  He  was  not  ex- 
pelled, however,  as  his  term  ended  with  the  meeting 


ADDISON  C.    GIBBS.  563 

of  the  Oregon  legislature  in  September.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Benjamin  F.  Harding,  who  was  sworn 
in  when  congress  met  in  December  of  that  year. 

By  an  order  in  September  1858  the  Pacific  coast 
was  divided  into  the  departments  of  California  and 
Oregon,  the  latter  under  the  command  of  General  W. 
S.  Harney,  with  headquarters  at  Vancouver.  This 
change  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  people  at  Van- 
couver, and  Harney  made  himself  at  once  popular  by 
opening  the  Walla  Walla  valley  to  settlement,  that 
section  having  been  closed  since  1855.  During  the 
following  summer  about  2,000  settlers  took  up  claims 
in  this  and  the  Umatilla  valleys. 

In  1859  the  Snake  river  Indians  began  to  be  trou- 
blesome, attacking  immigrants  and  committing  depre- 
dations on  the  reserves  of  the  treaty  Indians,  and  in 
the  spring  of  1860  two  joint  expeditions  were  sent  into 
the  country  traversed  by  the  predatory  bands,  under 
the  direction  of  Major  E.  Steen.  With  the  exception, 
however,  of  diverting  the  attention  of  the  hostile  na- 
tives from  the  immigrants  of  that  year,  he  accom- 
plished nothing,  the  Indians  successfully  eluding  him. 
In  September  the  companies  were  distributed  among 
the  several  posts,  but  no  sooner  were  they  settled  in 
their  quarters  than  Major  Grier,  in  command  at  Fort 
Walla  Walla,  was  notified  by  the  Indian  agent  on  the 
Umatilla,  that  between  Salmon  Falls  and  Fort  Boise 
about  fifty  persons  had  been  killed,  or  scattered 
throughout  that  desolate  region  to  perish  of  star- 
vation. 

Before  the  conclusion  of  the  civil  war  fortifications 
were  erected  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  one  on 
Point  Adams  on  the  south  side  of  the  entrance, 
named  Fort  Stevens,  after  General  Stevens,  who  fell 
at  the  battle  of  Chantilly,  and  another  on  Cape  Dis- 
appointment, on  the  north  side,  which,  in  1874,  was 
called  Fort  Canby,  in  honor  of  General  Canby,  who 
was  assassinated  by  the  Modocs  in  the  war  of  1872-3. 


564  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

In  1862  the  republicans  carried  the  election  of  all 
their  principal  candidates  by  a  large  majority,  Addi- 
son  C.  Gibbs  being  chosen  governor.  Benjamin  F. 
Harding  was  elected  senator  in  September,  to  succeed 
Stark,  whose  term  would  soon  expire.  During  the 
administration  of  Gibbs  many  important  matters  were 
subjects  of  legislation.  The  legislature  of  1864  passed 
a  specific-contract  law,  which  provided  that  no  money 
could  be  paid  in  satisfaction  of  a  judgment  other  than 
the  kind  specified  in  such  judgment,  and  that  gold 
and  silver  coins  of  the  United  States  should  be  re- 
ceived at  their  nominal  values  in  payment  of  every 
judgment,  decree,  or  execution.  At  a  special  session 
in  1865  another  law  was  enacted  which  removed  every 
impediment  to  the  exclusive  use  of  metallic  currency. 
In  1862  an  act  was  passed  for  the  location  of  the 
lands  donated  to  the  state  by  congress,  amounting  to 
nearly  700,000  acres,  Governor  Gibbs  being  appointed 
commissioner  to  locate  such  lands  and  designate  the 
purposes  to  which  they  should  be  applied.  The 
boundary  line,  moreover,  between  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington, on  the  46th  parallel,  from  the  bend  in  the 
Columbia  to  Snake  river  was  surveyed;  and  much 
was  done  to  further  the  construction  of  public  roads. 
A  code  of  civil  procedure  was  prepared  by  a  commis- 
sion consisting  of  Deady,  Gibbs,  and  Kelly,  and  ac- 
cepted in  1864;  in  1866  Chinese  miners  were  required 
to  pay  a  license  of  four  dollars  per  quarter. 

The  amendments  to  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  abolishing  slavery  and  extending  the  right  of 
suffrage  to  Africans  naturally  interfered  with  the 
laws  of  Oregon  against  negroes.  The  amendments, 
however,  were  adopted  by  joint  resolution  December 
11,  1865,  and  the  clauses  of  the  constitution  of  Ore- 
gon, discriminating  against  the  negro  as  a  citizen  of 
the  state,  were  rendered  void.  Governor  Gibbs'  term 
of  office  expiring  in  1866?  George  L.  Woods  was 
chosen  at  the  election  of  that  year  to  succeed  him,  de- 
feating James  K.  Kelly,  a  democrat  of  the  old  school. 


MILITARY  MEN.  565 

In  1865  ]ife  in  Oregon  was  unsafe  on  account  of 
the  Indian  raids,  and  early  in  the  spring  the  troops 
were  called  upon  to  take  the  field.  Colonel  Curry 
had  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  military  dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  owing  to  the  death  of  General 
Wright,  who  was  drowned  while  en  route  to  Van- 
couver to  assume  the  command,  the  steamer  Brother 
Jonathan,  on  which  he  had  taken  passage,  foundering 
at  sea.  Curry  distributed  the  troops  at  nine  differ- 
ent camps  scattered  over  western  Idaho  and  eastern 
Oregon,  but  for  all  this  precaution  the  country  still 
suffered  from  depredations. 

Before  Curry's  plan  for  a  winter  campaign  could 
be  tested,  orders  were  received  to  muster  out  the  vol- 
unteers, and  by  June,  1866,  the  whole  of  that  force 
was  disbanded  with  the  exception  of  company  B  of 
the  1st  Oregon  cavalry,  and  company  I,  1st  Oregon 
infantry.  In  February  of  that  year  Major-general 
Steele  took  command  of  the  department  of  the  Co- 
lumbia, with  no  better  success  than  his  predecessor. 
All  through  the  summer  the  ubiquitous  Indians  con- 
tinued their  depredations,  attacking  lonely  houses, 
driving  off  the  horses  and  cattle  of  the  stock-raisers 
and  of  the  stage-lines  and  transportation  companies, 
murdering  white  men,  and  killing  Chinamen,  between 
fifty  and  sixty  of  whom  were  slaughtered  at  Battle 
creek  in  May.  Having  struck  their  blow  the  raiders 
generally  succeeded  in  escaping  with  their  booty  to 
some  secure  retreat. 

In  the  autumn  General  Halleck,  in  command  of 
the  division  of  the  Pacific,  visited  eastern  Oregon 
going  to  Fort  Boise ;  but  travelling  with  an  escort 
on  the  well-protected  Chico  route,  at  a  time  when  the 
Indians  were  occupied  in  gathering  seeds  and  roots 
for  their  winter  supply,  he  saw  nothing  to  cause  ap- 
prehension. On  October  7th  a  joint  resolution  was 
passed  by  the  legislature  to  the  effect  that,  if  the 
general  government  did  not  send  troops  for  the  pro- 
tection of  eastern  Oregon  within  thirty  days  from 


560  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

that  date,  the  governor   should   call  out  a   sufficient 
number  of  volunteers  for  that  purpose. 

As  the  year  drew  to  a  close  Lieutenant-colonel 
George  Crook  was  ordered  to  relieve  Major  Marshall 
who  was  in  command  of  the  Boise  district.  All  the 
most  efficient  officers  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  most  favorable  time  to  fight  the  Indians  was  dur- 
ing the  winter.  About  the  middle  of  December 
Crook  took  the  field,  and  during  the  succeeding  cam- 
paigns, which  were  continued  into  midsummer  of 
1867,  he  inflicted  several  severe  blows  upon  the 
Shoshones.  In  these  successes  he  was  greatly  aided 
by  two  companies  of  Indian  allies,  each  fifty  strong, 
which  had  been  organized  by  Governor  Woods  with 
the  permission  of  the  general  government. 

In  August  1867  some  changes  were  made  in  mili- 
tary dispositions,  and  Crook  was  assigned  to  the  dis- 
trict of  the  lakes,  comprising  Fort  Klamath,  and 
camps  Watson,  Warner,  Logan,  and  Harney.  In  the 
last  days  of  September,  Crook  engaged  the  enemy 
after  a  difficult  march  of  four  weeks,  storming  an 
almost  impregnable  stronghold  on  high  lava  bluffs 
overlooking  the  south  branch  of  Pit  river  in  Califor- 
nia. Though  he  succeeded  in  dislodging  the  enemy 
after  some  hard  fighting,  the  Indians  effected  their  es- 
cape by  subterranean  passages.  The  great  extent  of  the 
fissures  and  caverns  made  it  too  dangerous  to  attempt 
an  examination  of  them,  and  on  the  30th  Crook  moved 
toward  Camp  W^arner,  where  he  arrived  October  4th. 

On  November  23d  Steele  relinquished  the  com- 
mand of  the  department  of  the  Columbia,  and  was 
succeeded  by  General  L.  H.  Rousseau.  Steele  was  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  had  served  under  Scott  in 
Mexico,  and  was  twice  promoted  for  gallant  conduct. 
During  the  civil  war  his  services  were  similarly  recog- 
nized, and  at  its  conclusion  he  held  the  rank  of  brevet 
major-general.  On  leaving  Oregon  he  was  granted 
an  extended  leave  of  absence,  but  shortly  afterward 
died  suddenly  of  apoplexy  in  San  Francisco. 


THE  MODOC  WAR.  567 

All  through  the  winter  of  1867-8  the  desultory 
warfare  was  continued,  the  Indians,  however,  being 
continually  harassed,  until,  finally,  the  principal 
chiefs  sued  for  peace.  On  June  30,  1868  a  council 
was  held,  at  which  Crook  made  his  own  terms.  "  Do 
you  see  any  fewer  soldiers  than  you  did  two  years 
ago?"  he  asked.  "No;  there  are  more,"  was  the 
reply.  "  Have  you  as  many  warriors?"  "No;  not 
half  so  many."  "  Very  well;"  said  Crook,  "that  is 
as  I  mean  to  have  it  until  you  are  all  gone." 

While  the  Shoshone  war  was  in  progress,  trouble 
was  brewing  on  the  boundary  question  with  Califor- 
fornia.  Ever  since  Fremont's  exploration,  the  Mo- 
docs  and  their  head  chief,  Sconchin,  had  proved  them- 
selves implacable  enemies  of  the  white  race,  and  had 
made  themselves  a  redoubtable  foe  of  the  latter.  In. 
1864,  however,  E.  Steele,  Indian  superintendent  of 
California,  made  a  treaty  with  this  chieftain,  then 
an  old  man,  and  also  with  Captain  Jack ;  the  former 
observed  the  conditions  faithfully,  living  within  the 
limits  of  the  reservation ;  but  the  latter  could  not  be 
kept  thereon.  Indian  superintendent  Huntington 
died  in  1868,  and  was  succeeded  by  A.  B.  Meacham, 
who,  in  December  1869,  induced  the  refractory  chief 
to  come  upon  the  reservation.  But  in  the  following 
spring  Captain  Jack  resumed  his  roaming  life,  and 
for  two  summers  his  followers  ranged  up  and  down 
among  the  scattered  farms,  visiting  the  houses  in  the 
absence  of  the  men,  frightening  women,  and  commit- 
ting various  outrages. 

In  1870  General  Crook  was  relieved  by  General 
E.  R.  S.  Can  by,  and  sent  to  fight  the  Indians  of 
Arizona,  for  which  purpose  the  military  posts  in 
Oregon  were  almost  depleted.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, Captain  Jack  became  still  more  defiant.  He 
frequently  visited  the  reservation,  boldly  declaring 
that  he  intended  to  go  where  he  pleased,  and  finally 
killed  an  Indian  medicine  man  because  he  failed  to 
save  the  lives  of  two  members  of  his  family.  Attempts 


5<>S  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

to  arrest  him  failed  through  the  interference  of  influen- 
tial white  friends  in  Yreka,  where  Jack  was  accustom- 
ed to  indulge  in  dissipation.  Negotiations  likewise 
failed;  conferences  were  useless;  and  it  was  finally 
decided  that  force  must  be  used. 

After  committing  more  depredations,  Jack  took  up 
his  position  in  the  lava  beds,  where  he  was  beseiged 
by  a  united  force  of  regulars  and  volunteers.  Through 
subterfuge  he  obtained  a  conference  with  representa- 
tives of  the  government  and  people,  at  which  General 
Can  by  and  E.  Thomas  were  treacherously  slain,  and 
Superintendent  Meacham  wounded.  There  was  no 
more  talk  of  peace  after  this ;  Jack  and  his  band  were 
hunted  to  their  death. 

The  political  status  of  the  people  during  the  trying 
period  of  Indian  warfare  gradually  underwent  a 
change  until  the  democratic  party  gained  the  ascen- 
dency. This  was  owing  to  the  immigration  of  south- 
erners after  the  conclusion  of  the  civil  war.  In  18G6 
Rufus  Mallory,  republican  candidate  for  representa- 
tive to  congress,  defeated  his  opponent  by  a  majority 
of  only  600  votes;  but  in  1868  David  Logan,  repub- 
lican, was  beaten  by  Joseph  S.  Smith,  democrat,  by 
1,200  votes.  In  the  same  year,  also,  the  democracy 
had  acquired  its  former  dominancy  in  the  legislature, 
there  being  nearly  twice  as  many  democrats  in  both 
houses  as  there  were  republicans. 

In  1870  the  party  again  displayed  its  ascendency, 
by  the  election  of  L.  F.  Grover  as  governor.  Grover 
had  been  president  of  the  democratic  organization  of 
the  state  ever  since  1864;  he  was  reflected  governor 
in  1874,  defeating  J.  C.  Tolman,  republican,  by  a 
small  majority.  In  1876  he  was  chosen  United 
States  senator,  defeating  Jesse  Applegate,  and 
in  February  1877,  having  resigned  the  governor- 
ship, took  his  seat  in  the  United  States  senate, 
S.  F.  Chadwick  succeeding  to  the  gubernatorial 
office. 


CHADWICK,  GKOVER,  THAYER,  MOODY.  569 

When  Grover  assumed  office  the  financial  condition 
of  the  state  was  so  prosperous,  that  the  treasury  con- 
tained funds  sufficient  to  defray  the  expenses  of  all 
the  departments  of  government  for  the  next  two 
years,  less  about  $6,000.  During  his  term  various 
measures  were  adopted,  all  important  to  the  welfare 
of  the  state ;  an  agricultural  college  was  established, 
as  also  a  university,  and  provisions  were  made  for  the 
construction  of  a  state  capitol.  These  and  other  pro- 
gressive measures  made  Grover's  administration  popu- 
lar, while  the  Modoc  war,  which  occurred  during  his 
term  of  office,  gave  to  it  additional  eclat.  The  im- 
provement in  the  affairs  of  the  government  was  sub- 
stantial and  noteworthy,  and  at  a  later  date  credit 
was  willingly  conceded  to  the  administration,  the 
course  of  which  had  been  temporarily  clouded  by 
unfounded  charges  and  complaints.  A  full  description 
of  the  governor's  administration  and  career  will  be 
found  in  a  later  chapter  of  this  volume. 

In  1878  the  republicans  again  failed  to  elect  their 
candidate,  C.  C.  Beekman,  who  was  defeated  by  W. 
W.  Thayer.  During  Thayer's  term,  the  state  debt 
was  entirely  liquidated,  and  the  financial  condition  of 
the  state  rendered  sound  and  healthy.  The  new 
governor,  a  native  of  Lima,  New  York,  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  at  Rochester,  in  March  1851.  In  1862  he 
went  to  Oregon,  removing  in  the  following  year  to 
Idaho,  attracted  by  the  mining  excitement,  and  there 
became  a  member  of  the  legislature,  returning  in 
1867,  when  he  settled  in  East  Portland  and  formed 
a  law-partnership  with  Richard  Williams. 

At  last  in  1882  the  republicans  again  came  to  the 
front,  electing  Z.  F.  Moody  as  governor  over  Joseph 
H.  Smith,  by  a  majority  of  1,452  votes,  and  sending 
to  congress  as  senator  Joseph  N.  Dolph,  after  a  pro- 
longed political  contest  with  the  democracy. 

Zenas  Ferry  Moody  was  a  New  England  republi- 
can, and  arrived  in  Oregon  in  1851.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  United  States  surveying  party  in  the 
Willamette  valley,  and  continued  in  that  service  for 


570  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

two  years.  In  1856  he  was  appointed  inspector  of 
United  States  surveys  in  California,  returning  to 
Oregon  in  1862.  After  engaging  in  a  variety  of  en- 
terprises, in  which  he  proved  himself  a  capable  busi 
ness  man,  he  was  elected  in  1872  to  the  state  senate, 
and  in  1880  to  the  lower  house,  of  which  he  was 
chosen  speaker. 

Senator  Dolph  arrived  in  Oregon  in  1862,  where 
his  talents  soon  made  him  prominent  in  his  profession 
as  a  lawyer.  He  was  educated  at  Genesee  college, 
and  was  a  native  of  New  York.  At  the  time  of  his 
election,  being  then  forty-seven  years  of  age,  he  was 
attorney  for  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  company, 
of  which  he  was  also  vice-president. 

Moody's  administration  was  marked  by  faithfulness 
and  care,  one  absolutely  free  from  abuses,  and  there 
are  none  among  his  predecessors  who  have  left  a 
more  stainless  record.  He  was  succeeded  in  1887 
by  Sylvester  Pennoyer,  a  democrat,  during  whose 
regime  a  bill  was  introduced  by  the  school  land 
commissioners,  whereby  nearly  a  million  dollars  would 
be  saved  to  the  school  fund  through  the  recovery  of 
its  lands  from  fraudulent  claimants.  In  the  election 
of  the  following  year,  the  free-trade  issue  resulted  in 
a  large  republican  majority,  Herman  being  chosen 
congressman  as  successor  to  Dolph.  At  that  date 
the  finances  of  Oregon  were  in  the  soundest  possible 
condition,  with  a  bonded  debt  of  less  than  $2,000,  and 
some  $54,000  in  outstanding  warrants. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  remarked  that  Oregon  is 
one  of  the  best  governed  of  all  the  Pacific  states,  not 
only  in  a  financial  point  of  view,  but  in  the  tone  and 
character  of  her  legislation  and  her  law-makers. 
In  the  halls  of  her  legislature  at  Salem  are  never 
heard  such  unseemly  squabblings  and  bickerings  as 
have  been  witnessed  in  the  capitol  at  Sacramento. 
Never  is  the  members'  time  and  the  people's  money 
frittered  away  in  frivolous  and  interminable  discus- 
sions, in  the  discussion  of  measures  which  are  either 


WHOLESOME  AND  BENEFICIAL  LAWS.  571 

useless  or  a  positive  injury  to  the  public.  The  laws 
enacted  by  Oregon's  statesmen  are,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, wholesome  and  beneficial;  at  least,  they  are 
never  vexatious,  so  that,  as  with  all  well-governed 
communities,  the  yoke  sits  so  lightly  upon  them  that 
it  is  barely  felt  at  all. 

And  now,  having  completed  this  brief  sketch  of  the 
political  history  of  the  state,  I  will  proceed  to  relate 
at  greater  length  the  career  of  some  of  her  leading 
statesmen. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

LIFE  OF  HENRY  W.   CORBETT. 

A  BUILDER  OF  EMPIRE — ANCESTORS  AND  PARENTS  —  BOYHOOD  —  BUSINESS 
VENTURES  IN  OREGON — THE  NORTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILROAD — THE  FIRS-J 
NATIONAL  BANK — PORTLAND  BOARD  OF  TRADE— BOYS  AND  GIRLS'  An 
SOCIETY  —  CORBETT,  FAILING  &  COMPANY — BENEFACTIONS — POLITICAI 
CAREER — MARRIAGE — CHILDREN — RESIDENCE — APPEARANCE  AND  CHAR 
ACTER. 

As  I  advance  in  the  biographical-historical  01 
historical- biographical  study  of  the  Pacific  coast, 
the  more  attractive  it  grows  and  the  more  interest 
ing  it  appears,  and  I  am  not  less  disposed  to  tiling 
favorably  of  my  plan  than  when  I  conceived  it 
though  I  find  it  even  better  in  execution  than  I  ha< 
regarded  it  in  theory.  This  fact  is  so  assuring  that 
had  I  ever  advanced  any  claims  to  credit  for  the  plai 
which  came  unsolicited  into  my  mind,  I  could  cheer 
fully  relinquish  such  claims.  But  I  have  never  had  ; 
moment's  apprehension  as  to  the  advantage  and  charn 
of  studying  history  through  the  medium  of  actua 
living  history-makers.  I  have  enjoyed  constantly  i 
fixed  and  glowing  faith  in  the  subject.  I  have  beei 
asked  why  call  plain  men,  citizens  of  the  common 
wealth,  builders?  If  I  could  have  found  a  title  mor 
significant  of  creation,  control,  manhood,  character— 
these  terms  used  in  the  fullness  of  their  truth  am 
spirit,  I  would  have  employed  it,  but  let  the  texi 
which  is  a  web  of  facts,  speak  and  answer  the  ques 
tion  for  itself. 

( 572 ) 


iiig1 iy  E.B  : 


HENRY  W.  CORBETT.  573 

Little  did  the  pilgrim  fathers  realize  what  they 
were  doing,  and  with  equal  truth  may  this  remark  be 
applied  to  the  pioneers  of  Oregon.  By  these  men 
and  by  those  who  followed  them  while  yet  its  settle- 
ments were  in  their  infancy  were  laid,  broad  and 
deep,  the  foundations  of  a  state  which  is  destined  be- 
yond a  peradventure  to  become  one  of  the  richest  and 
most  steadily  prosperous  sections  of  the  union.  In 
each  of  the  two  last  decades  her  population  has  almost 
doubled,  and  there  is  no  indication  that  this  rate  of 
increase  will  be  diminished  for  many  years  to  come, 
for  should  it  continue  for  half  a  century,  there  will 
still  remain  a  large  area  of  unoccupied  land.  Consid- 
ering her  great  extent  of  fertile  soil,  her  vast  and  ac- 
cessible deposits  of  coal  and  iron,  her  boundless  forests 
with  all  their  varieties  of  merchantable  timber, 
her  thousand  miles  of  inland  navigation,  her  abun- 
dant water-power,  and  her  other  manifold  resources, 
it  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  she  is  only  on  the  thresh- 
hold  of  her  career.  That  these  resources  have  already 
been  largely  developed,  appears  from  the  fact  that  in 
1881,  with  a  population  of  less  than  200,000,  her  ex- 
ports already  exceeded  $20,000,000. 

For  Portland  it  is  claimed  that  her  inhabitants 
possess  more  wealth  per  capita  than  those  of  any  other 
city  in  the  United  States,  and  this  is  no  cause  for 
wonder,  considering  her  position  as  a  business  centre, 
as  a  seaport  and  railroad  terminus,  and  as  the  seat  of 
manufacturing  and  other  industrial  enterprises.  For 
1880  the  value  of  her  manufactures  and  her  wholesale 
commercial  transactions  exceeded  $30,000,000,  and 
they  are  now  probably  not  less  than  $50,000,000  a 
year.  With  capital  and  business  ability  the  metropo- 
lis is  amply  supplied,  and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the 
proportion  of  wholesale  to  retail  houses  is  unusually 
large. 

Prominent  among  the  men  by  whom  these  results 
have  been  accomplished  is  Henry  Win  slow  Corbett, 
of  the  well  known  firm  of  Corbett,  Failing,  and  Com- 


574  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

pany,  who,  though  not  among  the  earliest  pioneers, 
has,  since  the  year  1851,  been  closely  identified  with 
the  interests  of  his  adopted  state.  But  it  is  not  alone 
as  one  of  the  leading  merchants  and  citizens  of 
Oregon  that  this  gentleman  deserves  more  than  a 

O  O 

passing  notice  in  these  pages.  As  a  banker,  a  rail- 
road man,  a  philanthropist,  a  scholar,  a  journalist — 
howsoever  one  may  reconcile  these  latter  vocations — - 
and  above  all  as  a  statesman,  his  name  will  long  be 
remembered  among  the  list  of  those  who  have  been 
foremost  in  contributing  to  her  prosperity  and  great- 
ness. 

The  progenitor  of  the  Corbett  family,  as  far  back 
as  the  record  goes,  was  Roger  Corbett,  a  military 
chieftain,  who  won  distinction  and  lands  under  Wil- 
liam I.,  in  the  conquest  of  England.  William  the 
eldest  son  of  Roger,  was  seated  at  Wattesborough. 
His  second  son,  Sir  Robert  Corbett,  baronet,  had  for 
his  inheritance  the  castle  and  the  estate  of  Caus,  with 
a  large  portion  of  his  father's  domain.  His  son  and 
namesake,  Robert,  went  to  the  siege  of  Acre  with 
Richard  I.,  bearing  for  arms  in  this  campaign  two 
ravens,  which  have  been  his  descendants'  crest  ever 
since. 

The  Corbetts  all  along  the  line  were  noteworthy 
men,  and  more  than  one  member  of  the  family  won  for 
themselves  distinction  in  the  affairs  of  church  or  state, 
while  others  adorned  the  learned  professions  of  their 
day.  One  of  the  original  stock  from  the  female  side 
holds  a  seat  in  parliament  at  this  time.  The  Corbetts 
in  America  are  their  lineal  descendants,  the  connection 
being  made  quite  clear  by  the  family  record  kept  at 
Mendon,  Massachusetts.  The  less  remote  ancestor 
of  the  subject  of  this  study,  Henry  Winslow  Corbett, 
came  to  New  England  early  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. His  grandfather  and  father  were  both  named 
Elijah  Corbett.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Me- 
linda  Forbush.  He  was  born  at  Westborough,  Mas- 
sachusetts, February  18,  1827.  His  father  was  a 
mechanic,  and  the  first  manufacturer  of  edge  tools  in 


HENRY  W.  CORBETT.  575 

that  part  of  the  country,  a  man  of  skill  and  inventive 
ability.  His  parents  were  persons  of  respectability, 
intelligence  and  marked  features  of  character.  That 
their  son's  course  of  life  had  been  greatly  influenced 
by  inheriting  from  them  valuable  mental  and  moral 
qualities  there  can  be  no  doubt,  while  he  is  indebted 
to  them  for  wholesome  precepts  and  example  also. 

Of  their  eight  children,  of  whom  six  grew  up, 
Henry  Winslo  w  was  the  youngest  son.  His  early  boy- 
hood was  spent  in  Washington  county,  N.  Y.  He  re- 
ceived his  first  lessons  in  the  common  schools,  which 
were  noted  for  their  thoroughness.  Later  he  attended 
Cambridge  academy,  an  old  and  reputable  institution. 
He  took  the  regular  academy  course,  and  then  held 
for  a  year  a  clerkship  at  Salem,  the  county  seat. 
When  seventeen  years  of  age  he  went  to  New  York 
city,  and  engaged  in  the  dry  goods  business,  continu- 
ing in  it  until  January  1851.  He  had  established 
himself  in  the  confidence  of  the  business  men,  and  was 
intrusted  with  a  stock  of  goods,  shipped  around  the 
Horn  to  Portland  in  October  1850,  by  two  parties 
with  whom  he  had  been  associated.  The  agreement 
was  that  he  should  there  devote  three  years  to  mer- 
chandising, and  then  return  and  divide  the  proceeds ; 
the  object  being  to  gain  a  competency,  and  then  with 
draw.  He  sailed  from  New  York  January  20,  1851, 
on  the  Empire  City,  and  in  the  new  ship  Columbia 
from  Panama,  arriving  at  Astoria  March  4th, 
Thence  he  took  passage  on  a  small  river  steamer,  also 
named  the  Columbia,  for  Portland,  where  he  landed 
the  following  morning,  after  passing  the  night  on 
deck,  for  in  the  north-west  state-rooms  were  luxuries 
as  yet  unknown.  Soon  after  his  arrival  he  made  a 
trip  through  the  Willamette  valley  on  horseback, 
stopping  at  Oregon  City,  Salem,  and  Albany.  The 
first  two  were  even  then  places  of  considerable  im- 
portance, although  the  entire  white  population  of  the 
territory,  which  at  that  date  included  Washington, 
Idaho,  and  a  part  of  Montana,  did  not  exceed  15,000 


r>76  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

souls.  At  Oregon  City  Mr  Corbett  met  with  John 
McLoughlin,  formerly  the  chief-factor  of  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company,  with  George  Abernethy,  the 
first  governor  of  Oregon  under  her  provisional  consti- 
tution, and  with  other  personages  who  have  since  be- 
come historical. 

Returning  to  Portland,  he  at  once  applied  himself 
to  business  with  all  the  zeal  and  earnestness  that  have 
stamped  his  career  in  life.  The  time  was  in  one  re- 
spect well  chosen,  for  during  this  year  there  arrived, 
direct  from  the  eastern  states,  thirteen  vessels  laden 
with  merchandise,  thus  making  Portland  the  commer- 
cial emporium  of  the  north-west.  Though  the  mar- 
ket was  somewhat  overstocked,  gold  was  plentiful,,  or 
rather  gold-dust,  for  many  of  the  Oregon  pioneers, 
who  were  among  the  earliest  and  most  successful 
miners  in  California,  had  now  returned  with  plethoric 
purses,  whose  contents  they  distributed  with  lavish 
hand.  Moreover,  that  state  depended,  in  a  measure, 
on  her  northern  sister  for  supplies  of  lumber,  flour, 
beef,  pork,  and  other  products,  the  proceeds  of  which 
swelled  the  volume  of  circulation. 

Within  fourteen  months  Mr  Corbett  had  disposed 
of  his  entire  stock  of  goods,  and  by  the  advice  of  his 
partners  he  returned,  with  $20,000  as  the  net  profits 
for  division.  He  then  joined  his  partners  for  a  year 
in  business  in  New  York,  at  the  same  time  holding 
an  interest  with  his  successors  in  the  business  at  Port- 
land, but  he  saw  that  Portland  was  a  better  field  for 
him,  and  determined  to  do  business  in  his  own  name, 
returning  there  to  make  that  city  his  home.  He  pre- 
ferred it  as  the  base  of  his  operations,  rather  than 
take  the  chances  in  a  speculative  market  like  San 
Francisco,  for  he  was  accustomed  to  legitimate  busi- 
ness. He  is  the  oldest  merchant  in  Portland,  and 
perhaps  in  Oregon. 

Since  his  establishment  he  has  always  been  among 
the  prominent  men  of  the  north-west  in  enterprises 
looking  to  the  development  of  the  country,  and  he 


HENRY  •W.  CORBETT.  577 

has  grown  up  with  it.  He  was  connected  with  and 
interested  in  those  early  transportation  enterprises  on 
the  rivers  that  have  been  of  such  great  influence  in 
enlarging  natural  resources,  revealing  new  capabilities, 
increasing  the  population  and  advancing  civilization. 

He  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  project  to  build 
the  Northern  Pacific  railroad,  and  while  in  the  senate 
labored  with  diligence  to  further  that  result,  having 
no  personal  interest  to  subserve  other  than  the  gen- 
eral good  of  the  state  and  the  north-west.  After  the 
failure  of  Jay  Cooke  to  carry  through  this  undertak- 
ing, and  some  years  after  the  reorganization  of  the 
company,  when  Henry  Villard  undertook  the  comple- 
tion of  the  road,  Mr  Corbett  took  a  pecuniary  inter- 
est as  well  as  a  general  interest  in  the  enterprise  of 
which  Mr  Villard  was  the  promoter.  He  is  largely 
interested  in  banking.  In  1869  he  and  Henry  Fail- 
ing obtained  the  control  of  the  First  National  bank, 
with  the  view  of  making  it  a  stronger  feature  in  the 
financial  affairs  of  the  city  and  state.  Established  in 
1865,  it  was  then  in  its  infancy,  but  has  grown  in 
magnitude  ever  since,  and  has  become  the  strongest 
national  bank  in  the  Pacific  northwest,  as  it  is  the 
oldest.  Henry  Failing  has  been  president  ever  since 
they  took  control,  and  Mr  Corbett  vice-president  since 
his  return  from  the  senate  and  a  seven  months'  trip 
in  Europe.  From  this  time  on  he  devoted  himself 
principally  to  local  interests. 

Mr  Corbett's  active  brain  originated  the  idea  of 
national  gold  banks  as  suited  to  the  currency  of  this 
coast,  but  as  greenbacks  rapidly  rose  to  par  his  happy 
invention  was  useful  only  for  the  period.  He  was 
elected  president  of  the  Portland  board  of  trade  soon 
after  its  organization,  and  continuously  thereafter  for 
a  number  of  years.  The  board  has  been  a  valuable 
factor  in  disseminating  information  on  all  important 
matters  pertaining  to  the  best  interests  of  the  com- 
mercial metropolis  and  the  state,  calling  the  attention 
of  the  government  to  needed  internal  improvements. 

C.  B.— II.     37 


578  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

He  has  been  connected  prominently  with  the  board 
of  immigration,  and  has  been  called  to  act  as  presi- 
dent of  various  associations  here — notably  the  Boys 
and  Girls'  Aid  Society,  the  beneficent  purpose  of 
which  is  to  secure  a  stay  of  punishment  in  the  case  of 
children  guilty  of  their  first  misdemeanor  or  crime,  with 
a  view  to  saving  them  from  the  demoralizing  effects 
of  companionship  with  degraded  convicts  in  the  county 
jails  or  state  prison.  Some  five  years  ago  a  new 
children's  home  was  built  in  an  eligible  part  of  the 
city,  and  every  care  taken  to  surround  the  unfor- 
tunates with  good  influences,  and  save  them  from 
fatal  degradation.  The  noble  labor  of  providing  for 
them  a  cheerful  home  has  met  with  happy  results, 
largely  through  the  encouragement,  cooperation,  and 
material  support  of  Mr  Corbet t,  and  citizens  who 
shared  his  humanitarian  views. 

While  in  the  senate  he  secured  the  appropriation 
for  the  United  States  building  at  Portland,  used  as 
post-office,  custom-house,  and  court-house;  also  for 
needed  improvements  of  river  and  harbors.  In  1866 
he  secured  the  government  contract  to  carry  the 
mails  from  Portland  to  Lincoln,  California,  C40  miles, 
and  stocked  the  route  with  four -horse  coaches. 
When  elected  to  the  senate  he  relinquished  his 
contract,  as  not  compatible  with  his  obligations  as 
a  public  servant,  and  sold  it  out  to  others.  At 
the  present  time  he  is  president  of  a  company 
organized  to  complete  the  construction  of  a  grand 
hotel,  most  substantial  in  structure  and  elegant 
in  finish — to  be  second  in  size  only  to  the  celebrated 
Palace  hotel  of  San  Francisco — a  work  begun  on  a 
magnificent  scale  by  Henry  Villard,  but  stopped  when 
he  fell  temporarily  from  the  pinnacle  of  his  greatness 
in  this  section.  The  building  will  receive  the  fitting 
name  of  "  The  Portland."  To  insure  its  completion, 
$500,000  has  been  raised.  Mr  Corbett,  Mr  Ladd, 
Mr  Failing,  and  Mr  Lewis  subscribing  a  little  over 
one-half  the  stock  among  themselves. 

Mr  Corbett's  original  venture  in  Portland  m  mer- 


HENRY   W.  CORBETT.  579 

chandising  has  developed  into  the  largest  wholesale 
hardware  business  in  the  city,  conducted  under  the 
firm  name  of  Corbett,  Failing,  and  Company.  He 
has  erected  some  of  the  first  business  blocks  in  the 
city,  and  has  otherwise  kept  his  wealth  in  motion, 
both  on  the  score  of  business  policy  and  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  general  good  of  tho  community. 
He  has  in  no  sense  hoarded  his  riches.  He  has 
evinced  his  public  spirit,  as  the  record  shows,  by 
taking  a  pronounced  and  active  part  in  politics,  com- 
merce, education,  and  religion,  in  every  great  and 
good  movement  promotive  of  better  government,  bet- 
ter business,  better  schools,  better  morals.  Where 
the  call  upon  him  has  been  for  cooperation  in  private 
enterprises  on  which  public  prosperity  depends,  he 
has  responded  readily  and  wisely  ;  where  gifts  have 
been  necessary  he  has  always  given,  not  ostentatiously 
and  for  the  name  of  it,  but  in  the  spirit  of  genuine 
charity,  which  is  discriminating.  That  he  might 
always  have  the  means  to  do  this,  it  has  been  the 
rule  of  his  life  to  set  aside  regularly  one-tenth  of  each 
year's  earnings  with  which  to  meet  the  charitable  de- 
mands of  the  next.  This  part  of  his  income  he  does 
not  regard  as  his  own.  It  is  in  his  stewardship  only. 
The  outlay  has  been  returned  to  him,  doubtless,  how- 
ever, in  material  results  flowing  back  to  him  from  his 
beneficence,  and  still  more  so,  in  the  possession  of  a 
mind  conscious  to  itself  of  right.  It  is  his  religion, 
and  the  world  would  not  be  what  it  is  to  hosts  of  the 
unfortunates  if  religious  professions  were  thus  made 
generally  good  in  practice.  He  was  the  first  to  close 
the  doors  of  his  store  on  Sundays  in  1851 — a  start- 
ling innovation  in  those  pioneer  days — but  this  was 
in  the  line  of  right  and  duty  with  him.  He  lost  no 
custom  by  it  ;  he  simply  established  himself  in  the 
confidence  of  his  customers.  He  was  reared  in  the 
presbyterian  doctrine,  and  has  proved  his  faith  by  his 
life  and  his  works.  His  walk  and  conversation  among 
men  is  an  earnest  of  what  he  is  in  the  church.  His 


580  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

religion  is  perhaps  wider  than  his  creed,  for  his  sym- 
pathy and  his  substantial  encouragement  go  out  to  all 
associations,  denominational  or  otherwise,  the  aim  of 
which  is  to  improve  mankind.  Those  two  great  sources 
of  moral  and  mental  amelioration,  under  whatever 
name  or  outward  seeming,  the  churches  and  the 
schools,  knew  him  as  a  friend  in  need. 

In  politics  Mr  Corbott  grew  up  in  the  whig  tariff 
school  of  Henry  Clay.  On  the  formation  of  the  re- 
publican party  in  Oregon  he  became  one  of  its  lead- 
ers, and  was  elected  chairman  of  the  state  central 
committee,  and  delegate  to  the  Chicago  convention  of 

o  O 

1860,  by  which  memorable  body  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  named  for  the  presidency.  Being  unable  to 
reach  there  in  time,  Horace  Greeley  represented  Or- 
egon by  proxies  from  Mr  Corbettand  Leander Holmes. 
All  students  of  the  political  history  of  the  United 
States  know  the  conspicuous  part  played  by  Mr 
Greeley  on  this  occasion,  and  realize  the  momentous 
consequences  of  his  activity  in  defeating  Mr  Seward 
for  the  nomination,  his  strenuous  opposition  to  this 
candidate  resulting  in  the  choice  of  Mr  Lincoln  as 
the  standard-bearer  of  the  party.  Oregon  was  thus 
indirectly  made  a  conspicuous  factor  in  this  nomina- 
tion, Mr  Greeley  being  wisely  chosen  to  represent  the 
Oregon  delegates,  who  could  not  be  personally  pres- 
ent. The  fight  was  hard  and  close,  and  these  two 
votes,  supplemented  by  Mr  Greeley 's  indefatigable 
efforts,  and  backed  by  the  power  of  his  great  paper, 
The  Tribune,  carried  the  day  ;  so  that  through  him,  as 
its  chosen  instrument,  Oregon  became  a  factor  in  the 
history  of  national  politics. 

Mr  Corbett  attended  the  inauguration  of  Mr  Lin- 
coln March  4,  1861.  During  his  trip  east  there  oc- 
curred two  incidents,  which  are  the  outgrowth  of  his 
first  participation  in  general  politics,  and  serve  to 
show  the  breadth  of  his  views  and  the  keenness  of 
his  insight  into  the  requirements  of  the  emergency  of 
the  times.  There  was  a  lull  before  the  storm.  The 


HENRY   W.  CORBETT.  581 

:outh  had  decided  to  withdraw  from  the  union,  and 
the  north  was  divided  on  the  question.  Instant  ac- 
tion was  necessary,  but  no  one  seemed  to  know  what 
was  best  to  be  dono  to  determine  the  issue. 

On  the  llth  of  March,  1861,  he  met  Thurlow 
Weed  at  the  Astor  house.  Mr  Weed,  who  was  un- 
derstood to  be  the  power  behind  the  throno  (at  least 
of  Mr  Seward,  who  was  then  Mr  Lincoln's  leading 
counsellor),  and  Mr  Corbett  fell  into  conversation 
about  the  state  of  affairs.  Said  Mr  Corbett  :  "  What 
does  the  government  propose  to  do  in  the  matter  of 
giving  aid  to  Major  Anderson  at  Fort  Sumter  ?  "  Mr 
Weed  replied  :  "  General  Scott  is  of  the  opinion  it 
will  take  25,000  men  to  put  down  the  rebellion  at  that 
point,  and  he  has  concluded,  therefore,  not  to  do  any- 
thing." "If  this  be  so,"  remarked  Mr  Corbett, 
"  why  not  send  a  vessel  loaded  with  provisions  to  the 
relief  of  Major  Anderson,  and  notify  the  rebels  that 
if  they  fire  on  this  government  ship  they  will  do  so 
at  their  peril."  Mr  Weed's  quick  response  was  :  "I 
think  that's  a  good  idea."  Mr  Corbett  that  day 
sailed  for  Oregon  by  the  way  of  Panama  ,  upon  his 
arrival  there  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  plan 
proposed  by  him  had  been  pursued  by  the  govern- 
ment. It  is  possible  that  some  other  active  brain  had 
originated  the  idea  formulated  by  Mr  Corbett ;  but 
if  so,  the  coincidence  is  very  remarkable.  Whether 
the  credit  for  exclusive  originality  is  due  to  Mr  Cor- 
bett will,  perhaps,  never  be  determined. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  suggestion  was  of  extreme 
value.  The  rebels  fired  upon  the  Star  of  the  West, 
and  the  echoes  of  the  cannonade  had  scarcely  died 
out  before  the  north  realized  the  danger  of  delay,  and 
rose  up  as  one  man  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the 
union.  The  south  were  the  aggressors;  the  north 
were  put  on  the  defensive. 

The  other  incident  took  place  shortly  after  Mr 
Lincoln's  inauguration.  Calling  on  Mr  Greeley, 
whose  idea  was,  "  Let  our  erring  sisters  depart  in 


582  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

peace,"  Mr  Corbett,  who  has  always  possessed  the 
courage  of  his  convictions,  and  whose  political  rela- 
tions with  the  great  Tribune  editor  were  such  that  he 
felt  warranted  in  expressing  himself  plainly,  took  issue 
with  Mr  Greeley.  Said  he  :  'k  It  is  my  conviction 
that  the  war  should  be  prosecuted  with  the  utmost 
vigor  to  coerce  the  states  that  have  placed  themselves 
in  open  hostility  to  the  government.  It  will  never 
do  to  concede  that  the  southern  states  can  withdraw 
from  the  union.  If  this  be  granted,  what  would 
hinder  the  western  central  states  from  going  out  in 
the  same  way?  According  to  what  principle  could 
New  England  or  the  Pacific  states  be  restrained  from 
setting  up  separate  governments  for  themselves  ? 
The  republic  would  be  broken  into  fragments  with  all 
the  disadvantages  attendant  upon  a  multiplicity  of 
petty  sovereignties,  weak  and  jarring,  without  suffi- 
cient strength  to  repel  invasion,  or  to  command  respect 
abroad.  The  next  issue  of  the  Tribune  contained  a 
leading  article  headed,  "  On  to  Richmond." 

From  the  first  intimation  of  a  struggle  between  the 
states  Mr  Corbett  was  an  uncompromising  union  man, 
and  while  chairman  of  the  republican  state  central 
committee,  he  put  forth  every  effort  to  induce  all 
loyal  men  in  Oregon  to  combine  against  the  heresy  of 
secession.  To  this  end  a  union  convention  was  held 
in  Eugene  City  April  9,  1862.  In  the  call  signed 
bv  the  central  committee,  of  which  he  was  chairman, 
a"  large  number  of  republicans  and  Douglas  demo- 
crats from  all  parts  of  the  state  joined.  The  result 
was  that  a  union  ticket  was  nominated,  divided  about 
equally  between  the  republicans  and  the  democrats. 
This  judicious  measure  was  adopted,  though  opposed 
bv  some  of  the  radical  wing  of  the  republican  party, 
for  the  question  was  simply  one  of  union  or  disunion. 
The  state,  which  had  hitherto  been  decidedly  demo- 
cratic, was  thus  saved  to  the  union  beyond  all  doubt, 
and  eventually  became  permanently  republican. 

Mr  Corbett  was  solicited  to  accept  the  nomination 


HENRY   W.  CORBETT.  583 

for  governor,  but,  having  no  personal  ambition  in  this 
direction,  he  declined  the  honor.  In  the  fall  of  1866, 
without  any  effort  on  his  part  and  without  any  special 
desire  for  preferment,  he  was  chosen  to  the  United 
States  senate  to  succeed  J.  W.  Nesmith.  While  in 
the  senate  Mr  Corbett  won  a  reputation  for  himself 
by  his  thorough  practical  knowledge  of  financial  af- 
fairs, and  was  ever  opposed  to  the  financial  heresies 
of  the  period  following  the  conclusion  of  the  war. 
The  soundness  of  the  views  which  he  then  expressed 
has  been  fully  demonstrated,  for  the  principles,  if  not 
the  identical  measures  which  he  advocated,  have  since 
become  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  government.  His 
cogent  arguments  on  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments ;  on  the  funding  of  the  national  debt  at  a  lower 
rate  of  interest  and  longer  time ;  and  his  determined 
opposition  to  all  plans  that  savored  in  the  least  of  bad 
faith  or  repudiation,  can  be  understood  best  as  pre- 
sented in  his  own  words,  recorded  in  the  archives  at 
the  national  capital,  and  published  in  the  Congressional 
Globe,  December  6th  and  13,  1867;  March  11,  1868  ; 
February  11,  1869;  March  7,  1870;  March  11,  1870; 
March  19,  1872. 

On  the  floor  of  the  senate  he  had  to  contend  with 
some  of  the  most  experienced  and  wisest  legislators 
of  the  period,  several  of  whom  are  still  conspicuous 
in  national  affairs.  He  fought,  however,  for  good 
faith  and  the  right,  and  time  has  proved  that  his  judg- 
ment was  correct  in  every  particular,  not  only  accord- 
ing to  the  logic  of  morals,  but  on  the  ground  of 
expediency  in  finance,  as  well.  An  extract  from  his 
great  speech  delivered  in  the  senate  March  11,  1868, 
will  show  the  integrity  of  his  character,  the  power  of 
his  reasoning,  and  his  eloquence  in  debate.  Mr  Cor- 
bett arose  to  explain  the  notice  he  gave  that  he  would 
offer  an  amendment  to  the  funding  bill  then  under 
consideration,  so  as  to  make  the  bonds  in  question  re- 
deemable in  coin  after  twenty  years  instead  of  ten. 
His  remarks  turned  upon  the  bold  statement  of  a  dis- 


584  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

tinguished  senator,  in  reply  to  a  question  put  to  him 
as  to  what  he  would  do  provided  the  then  bondholder 
would  not  accept  the  five  per  cent  bond,  that  he,  for  one, 
would  vote  to  pay  off  the  5-20  bonds  in  legal  tenders, 
providing  the  holders  did  not  see  fit  to  exchange  their 
securities  for  a  bond  bearing  one  per  cent  less  interest 
than  those  then  held  by  them.  Said  Mr  Corbett : 

"  With  such  a  proposition  I  cannot  agree.  The 
solemn  obligations  resting  upon  me  as  a  senator,  and 
the  solemn  obligations  resting  upon  the  government 
in  this  crisis  of  our  financial  struggle  forbid.  A 
struggle  I  say,  because  it  is  a  struggle  with  ourselves 
whether  we  will  pay  our  bonds  as  they  mature,  in 
dollars  or  with  our  irredeemable  notes,  made  a  legal 
tender  under  the  pressure  of  war,  and,  as  a  war  meas- 
ure, to  be  redeemed  with  gold  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
or  funded  into  United  States  bonds  bearing  interest 
that  should  be  equivalent  to  gold. 

"It  is  not  for  the  present  that  I  speak,  but  k  is 
that  great,  grand,  and  glorious  future  that  I  see  for 
my  country  looming  up  before  me,  powerful  and 
mighty  as  she  is  to  be,  destined  to  withstand,  as  one 
day,  she  will,  all  the  governments  of  the  crowned 
heads  of  Europe,  if  occasion  requires.  I  would  lay 
our  credit  deep  and  broad  not  for  one  century,  but  for 
a  hundred  centuries.  .  .  . 

"  Let  us  keep  our  armor  bright  and  our  credit  un- 
tarnished and  look  to  time,  to  the  great  future,  as  our 
remedy  for  this  burden.  To  say  that  we  cannot  pay 
the  interest  on  this  debt  is  folly ;  there  is  no  such 
sentiment  in  the  American  heart,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  are  determined  to  do  and  accomplish  what 
no  other  nation  has  the  internal  wealth  and  vigor  to 
do.  Many  croakers  said  that  we  could  not  put  down 
this  rebellion;  the  people  said:  'We  will  try.'  All 
the  people  now  ask  is  that  you  should  try  to  pay  the 
debt.  As  for  myself,  I  never  had  a  doubt  that  we 
could  put  down  the  rebellion.  Neither  have  I  had  a 
doubt  but  that  we  can  pay  this  debt  in  dollars. 


HENRY   W.  CORBETT.  585 

Public  credit  should  be,   '  Like   Caesar's  wife,  above 
suspicion.' 

"  Therefore  let  us  not  crown  this  temple,  hewn  by 
the  sweat  of  so  many  brows,  reared  by  the  blood  of 
so  many  brave  lads,  with  the  capstone  of  repudiation. 
Let  us  do  nothing  as  a  great  and  noble  and  suffering 
people  that  shall  detract  from  the  honor  of  those  ly- 
ing silent  and  cold  in  their  blood-bought  graves,  with 
naught  but  their  country's  banner  over  them.  To 
me,  Mr  President,  my  duty  is  plain;  my  duty  to  the 
men  that  came  forward  to  supply  our  suffering  army, 
to  succor  our  noble  boys,  in  the  day  of  the  national 
darkness  and  despair,  and  to  the  capitalists  of  Ger- 
many, of  Frankfort,  that  took  our  securities  and 
spewed  out  the  rebel  bonds,  and  gave  to  us  money, 
the  sinews  of  war,  to  assist  us  in  maintaining  the  life 
of  the  nation.  I  need  not  the  example  of  other  na- 
tions to  tell  me  what  is  right  between  man  and  man, 
or  between  nation  and  nation  ;  it  needs  not  the  shrewd 
argument  of  a  lawyer  to  tell  me  what  is  due  to  my 
creditor ;  if  there  is  any  one  thing  that  I  regard  as 
more  sacred  in  life,  after  my  duty  to  my  God,  it  is  to 
fulfill  all  my  engagements,  both  written  and  implied, 
and  nothing  shall  drive  me  from  this  position." 

Thus  from  the  liberal  standpoint  taken  by  Mr 
Corbett,  the  nation's  honor  was  bound  to  meet  the 
indebtedness  incurred  by  the  expenses  of  the  war, 
"not,"  as  he  expressed  it,  "according  to  the  strict 
advantages  that  might  be  taken  of  the  law,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  implied  obligations."  To  the  firm  atti- 
tude which  he  and  others  assumed  on  this  long-vexed 
question,  and  to  his  own  efforts  as  much  as  to  those 
of  any  single  individual,  may  be  attributed  in  a  meas- 
ure the  preservation  of  the  national  credit,  and  the 
fact  that  the  country  is  now  more  grievously  per- 
plexed with  the  magnitude  of  its  surplus  than  with 
the  magnitude  of  its  debt. 

In  the  discussion  on  the  currency  bill  on  the  llth 
of  February  1869,  to  which  Mr  Corbett  offered  several 


586  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

amendments,  he  also  displayed  powers  of  rhetoric  and 
of  close,  logical  argument,  which  showed  him  to  be  at 
least  a  match  for  the  veterans  of  debate.  His  speech 
on  this  occasion  was  one  of  his  greatest  efforts,  and  with- 
out some  mention  of  it  this  sketch  of  his  career  would 
indeed  be  incomplete.  Pleading  for  a  speedy  return  to 
specie  payments,  he  said:  "We  cannot  shut  our 
eyes  to  the  evil  effects  of  our  inflated  and  demoralized 
currency ;  its  ultimate  effects  upon  our  working  popu- 
lation in  confining  the  production  of  their  labor  to  a 
home  market.  The  energy  of  our  people  is  not  to  be 
circumscribed.  We  are  young,  enterprising,  and  seek 
to  be  the  greatest  producing,  as  well  as  the  greatest 
commercial,  nation  in  the  world.  We  are  not  satis- 
fied to  sit  down,  like  other  inactive,  non-progressive 
countries,  and  consume  all  we  produce.  We  must 
expand  and  control  the  trade  of  other  countries.  Our 
present  currency  is  fixed  by  law ;  it  has  no  power  of 
expansion  as  compared  with  the  currency  of  the 
world  ;  consequently  I  contend  that  it  is  the  worst 
possible  currency ;  it  is  a  fixed  amount,  capable  of  be- 
ing controlled  by  designing  speculators,  and  local  in 
its  character,  incapable  of  being  circulated  abroad  and 
incapable  of  being  increased  from  abroad." 

He  then  called  attention  to  the  enormous  exporta- 
tion of  gold,  caused  by  the  fact  that  other  countries 
had  no  use  for  our  irredeemable  paper.  For  the  year 
1868,  when  greenbacks  were  quoted  at  from  30  to  40 
per  cent  discount,  exports  of  gold  exceeded  imports 
by  the  sum  of  $80,000,000,  and  this  because  we  prac- 
tically said  to  the  world:  "You  cannot  have  any- 
thing we  produce  unless  you  pay  us,  say  $1.36  for 
what  is  worth  $1  in  other  countries."  "We  all 
know,"  he  continued,  "  how  difficult  it  is  to  induce  a 
man  to  sell  a  piece  of  property  that  cost  him  $136,- 
000  in  what  he  counted  dollars,  for  $100,000  in  such 
money  as  other  countries  count  dollars.  This  feeling 
exists  with  the  farmer,  the  manufacturer,  and  those 
engaged  in  commerce,  and  nothing  can  remedy  it  un- 


HEN.RY   W.  CORBETT.  587 

0i 

til  you  return  to  specie  payments.  You  may  stimu- 
late trade  for  a  little  time  by  a  fresh  issue  of  irre- 
deemable paper.  It  goes  to  the  country ;  it  is  as 
plentiful  as  rags,  and  finally  it  approaches  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  rags,  and  thus  you  have  irredeem- 
able rags  for  legal  tender." 

As  to  the  system  then  adopted  by  the  government 
of  throwing  gold  upon  the  market  whenever  it  rose 
above  a  certain  price,  Mr  Corbett  considered  it  to  be 
hurtful  in  the  extreme,  especially  to  the  people  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  who  formed  the  gold-producing  section 
of  the  community.  Though  they  had  not  complained 
of  the  treasury  thus  depreciating  the  value  of  one  of 
their  leading  products,  and  compelling  them  to  sell  it 
for  less  than  it  was  worth,  they  had  none  the  less 
good  reason  for  complaint.  What,  for  instance,  would 
the  farmer  say,  if  the  government  were  to  adopt 
the  same  policy  as  to  the  commodities  which  they 
produced.  In  conclusion  he  remarked:  "We  are 
willing  even  to  bear  this  unjust  discrimination  against 
the  products  of  that  portion  of  the  country,  if  it 
tended  to  bring  this  portion  of  the  union  back  to  a 
sound  healthy  condition,  but  its  tendency  lias  a  con- 
trary effect.  It  is  driving  all  the  specie  out  of  the 
country  to  Europe  and  to  China.  We  are  further  from 
specie  payments  than  a  year  ago.  Stop  the  sale  of 
gold  by  the  treasury,  and  let  it  seek  its  level  like  all 
other  products  of  the  country,  without  interference 
by  government  to  bear  it  down  or  force  it  up ;  let  it 
assume  its  proper  function.  The  world  has  chosen 
the  precious  metals  as  the  standard,  and  I  think  we 
cannot  revolutionize  the  world  in  this  respect. 
Specie  will  most  likely  remain  our  standard,  whatever 
other  theories  we  may  present.  We  may  keep  down 
the  price  for  a  time  by  unnatural  appliances,  but 
eventually,  like  water,  it  will  find  its  level." 

In  the  debate  on  the  funding  bill,  which  passed 
the  senate  in  amended  form  on  the  llth  of  March, 
1870,  authorizing  the  issue  of  $1,200,000,000  worth 


588  GOVERNMENT- OREGON. 

of  bonds,  in  three  equal  portions,  bearing  interest  at 
five,  four  and  a  half,  and  four  per  cent,  and  all  re- 
deemable in  gold,  Mr  Corbett  made  many  pertinent 
remarks.  At  this  date  the  six  per  cents  were  still 
below  par,  and  greenbacks  at  a  heavy  discount,  while 
there  were  few  who  believed  that  bonds  bearing 
a  much  lower  rate  of  interest  could  be  floated  on  the 
market  at  their  face  value.  In  the  original  bill  it 
was  proposed  to  convert  $356,000,000  worth  of  legal- 
tender  notes  into  four  per  cent  bonds,  thereby  increas- 
ing the  interest  on  the  public  debt  by  some  $14,000,- 
000  or  $15.000,000  a  year.  Even  Senator  Sherman 
advocated  such  a  measure,  for,  as  he  explained,  by 
thus  trying  the  currency  to  the  public  credit — that  is 
to  the  market  value  of  the  bonds — the  former  would 
be  anchored  on  a  sure  foundation,  where  it  would  rest 
in  the  hands  of  the  people  until  redeemed  in  coin  on 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments. 

To  such  amateur  legislation  the  senator  from 
Oregon  replied  that  legal-tender  notes  could  not  be 
funded,  for  no  one  would  invest  his  currency  in  four 
per  cent  bonds  unless  money  should  be  so  plentiful 
that  it  was  not  worth  that  rate  of  interest.  On  the 
question  of  taxing  United  States  bonds  Mr  Corbett  ex- 
pressed his  opinions  with  his  usual  force  and  empha- 
sis. In  reply  to  Senator  Casserly,  who  stated  that  if 
such  bonds  were  exempt  from  taxation,  those  who 
held  them  would  become  an  odious  class  in  the  com- 
munity whenever  there  should  occur  a  change  in 
public  opinion,  he  said  :  "I  do  not  wish  to  leave  this 
question  open  until  there  shall  be  that  change  of 
public  opinion  to  which  the  senator  from  California 
refers,  until  another  party  shall  come  here,  until  the 
people  who  were  in  rebellion  against  us  come  here  and 
desire  to  tax  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  out  of 
existence,  and  make  them  as  worthless  as  confederate 
bonds.  That  is  the  idea,  as  I  understand,  of  retain- 
ing a  tax  upon  these  bonds.  It  is  for  that  very  rea- 
son that  I  am  in  favor  of  negotiating  this  loan  and 


HENRY   W.  CORBETT.  589 

reducing  the  interest  and  freeing  it  from  every  tax 
whatever,  so  that  there  can  be  no  excuse  hereafter  for 
an  attempt  to  tax  the  securities  of  the  United  States." 

Most  of  the  measures  that  Mr  Corbett  advocated, 
and  more  than  he  anticipated,  have  since  been 
adopted,  though  not  of  course  directly  in  the  manner 
which  he  proposed.  Specie  payments  have  been  re- 
sumed ;  the  national  debt  has  been  funded  at  lower 
rates  of  interest,  with  extended  time,  and  United 
States  bonds  are  exempt  from  all  taxation.  We  have 
seen  the  four  per  cents,  which  it  was  supposed  could 
not  be  placed  on  the  market  except  at  a  heavy  dis- 
count, sell  for  more  than  thirty  per  cent  premium, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  nation,  our 
government  securities  have  sold  for  higher  prices,  in 
proportion  to  the  income  they  return,  than  the  Brit- 
ish three  per  cent  consols.  Until  recent  years  the  lat- 
ter were  considered  the  best  securit}r  in  the  world;  but 
the  prestige  of  national  credit,  following  the  course  of 
empire,  has  settled  at  length  on  these  western  lands. 

Thus,  somewhat  at  length,  for  his  career  has  been 
an  exceptional  one,  we  have  reviewed  the  political  life 
of  one  of  the  foremost  statesmen  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
That  he  has  left  his  impress  not  only  on  the  records, 
but  on  the  destiny  of  the  nation  none  will  care  to  dis- 
pute. We  would  that  there  were  more  such  men  in 
the  chambers  of  our  national  and  local  legislatures, 
men  whose  heart  and  mind  were  intent  on  their  work 
and  not  on  their  pay,  their  mileage,  their  allowance, 
and  their  schemes  for  self-aggrandisement. 

It  remains  only  to  be  said  that  Mr  Corbett  was  a 
delegate  to  the  national  republican  convention  which 
nominated  Grant  and  Colfax  in  1868.  He  has  always 
taken  an  active  interest  in  politics,  though  never 
anxious  for  official  preferment  for  himself.  During 
the  war,  though  Oregon  was  far  from  the  seat  of 
active  operations,  loyal  citizens  here  were  not  luke- 
warm in  their  sympathy  with  and  support  of  the 
cause.  As  an  active  member  of  the  Christian  com- 


590  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

mission,  much  was  done  by  Mr  Corbett,  in  an  unob- 
trusive way,  to  promote  the  comfort  of  the  union 
soldiers,  and  to  encourage  them  through  the  dark 
days  of  the  struggle. 

Mr  Corbett  was  married  in  February  1853  to  Miss 
Caroline  E.  Jagger,  who  died  in  1865,  leaving  him 
two  sons,  both  born  in  Portland,  the  younger  of 
whom,  Hamilton  F.  Corbett,  died  several  years  ago. 
The  elder  is  Henry  J.  Corbett,  about  thirty  years  of 
age,  who  manifests  the  ability  and  the  disposition  to 
take  up  and  carry  forward  successfully  through  an- 
other generation,  the  work  of  his  father.  After 
graduating  from  Lawrenceville  academy,  N.  J.,  he 
took  his  place  in  the  bank  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder. 
He  has  risen  step  by  step,  until  he  has  won  for 
himself  the  responsible  position  of  assistant  cashier. 
He  has  grown  with  the  bank,  is  acquainted  with 
all  its  operations,  and  can  be  depended  upon  to 
keep  the  credit  balances  in  good  condition.  He 
is  a  stockholder  and  director,  and  is  also  identi- 
fied as  director  with  other  corporations.  The  dis- 
tinguishing traits  of  his  character  are  thoroughness 
and  determination.  He  gets  to  the  bottom  of  what- 
ever he  undertakes ;  if  anything  has  to  be  investigated 
his  services  are  called  into  requisition.  He  is  digni- 
fied and  courteous  in  demeanor,  and  unlike  most  other 
young  men  occupying  his  place  and  having  his  pros- 
pects for  the  future,  he  is  unassuming  and  modest. 
He  appreciates  the  counsels  of  his  father,  and  realizes 
that  life  without  an  aim  is  not  worth  living ;  that 
every  man  is  accountable  to  his  fellows  and  to  himself 
for  something  accomplished  by  his  individual  efforts 
and  talents.  He  would  have  chosen  a  profession  but 
for  the  business  demands  upon  him  as  his  father's 
successor.  He  possesses  a  fine  physique;  is  six  feet 
in  height,  straight  as  an  arrow,  symmetrically  formed, 
athletic,  and  a  bold  and  tireless  sportsman,  and  as- 
suredly he  is  a  young  man  upon  whom  his  father's 
mantle  will  fall  gracefully. 


HENRY   W.  CORBETT.  501 

In  1867  Mr  Corbett  was  again  married  to  Miss 
Emma  L.  Haggles  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts.  At 
the  time  of  her  marriage  Mrs  Corbett  was  twenty- 
one  years  of  age — quite  young  to  assume  the  social 
and  domestic  responsibilities  that  devolved  upon  her, 
for  she  at  once  took  position  in  the  social  circles  of 
the  capital  as  a  senator's  bride  and  as  a  mother  to  his 
two  sons.  There  are  few  young  ladies  who  could 

«/  ^ 

have  borne  themselves  so  becomingly  in  this  new 
sphere.  Mrs  Corbett  was  endowed  with  remarkable 
grace  of  manner  and  a  refinement  of  wit  in  repartee 
that  won  her  many  admirers  at  Washington. 

Mr  Corbett's  Portland  residence  is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  in  that  city  of  elegant  dwellings.  Its  inte- 
rior appointments  are  in  excellent  taste,  and  accord 
with  the  wealth  and  position  of  the  proprietor ;  the 
ample  grounds  about  his  house  are  ornamented  by  a 
number  of  beautiful  elms  that  were  brought  by  him 
as  mere  twigs,  their  roots  packed  in  moss,  from  New 
England  by  way  of  Panama.  Taking  kindly  to  this 
soil,  they  have  developed  in  size,  and  widened  the 
circle  of  their  shade  from  year  to  year,  conspicuous 
by  their  origin  and  their  adaptability.  So  their  pos- 
sessor, true  to  his  inherited  qualities  and  education, 
has  grown  in  power  and  favor  under  new  and  some^- 
times  strange  conditions. 

Mr  Corbett  is  a  man  of  distinguished  appearance, 
being  six  feet  in  height,  straight  and  spare  built,  but 
symmetrical.  His  manner  is  courtly  and  graceful. 
He  is  gentle  and  courteous  in  address — a  man  whom 
Americans  are  not  ashamed  to  point  out  as  a 
specimen  of  a  United  States .  senator.  His  hair 
was  brown,  but  now  iron  gray,  rather  contrib- 
uting to  the  dignity  of  his  presence.  His  eyes  of 
hazel  color  are  soft  and  restful  when  he  is  in  repose, 
but  bright  and  sparkling  when  he  is  exhilarated.  His 
face  betokens  kindness  and  good  will;  his  smile  is 
cheerfulness  itself.  He  impresses  you  as  a  man  who 
has  succeeded  in  life  by  patience  and  the  economy  of 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

LIFE  OP   SOLOMON  HIRSCH. 

THE  REWARD  OF  SELF  HELP — SUCCESS  ATTENDING  APPLICATION  TO  BUSINESS 
AND  STRICT  INTEGRITY — A  FACTOR  IN  OREGON'S  GROWTH — REMARKABLE 
LEGISLATIVE  CAREER— RECOGNITION  OF  ABILITY  AND  CHARACTER — A 
MAN  WHOM  THE  PEOPLE  APPRECIATE — UNITED  STATES  EMBASSADOR  TO 
TURKEY. 

MANY  men  have  made  their  mark  in  the  senate  of 
Oregon  since  the  first  legislative  body  assembled  in 
1843,  in  an  unoccupied  barn  in  Oregon  City.  The 
pioneers  who  had  travelled  for  more  than  two  thou- 
sand miles  through  what  was  then  known  as  the 
American  desert,  braving  perils  and  hardships,  to 
found  a  new  empire  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  could 
be  trusted  to  frame  a  constitution  which  provided 
equal  rights  and  liberties  for  every  citizen.  That  its 
provisions  were  well  considered  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  most  of  them  were  ratified  in  the  organic 
act  of  1848.  In  later  years  the  state  has  been  equally 
fortunate  in  securing  for  its  law-makers  men  of  char- 

O 

acter  and  ability,  with  heart  and  brain  intent  on  their 
work,  and  not  on  their  per  diem,  their  allowances,  and 
their  own  personal  designs.  Worthy  of  mention 
among  these  is  Solomon  Hirsch,  who  served  for  three 
successive  terms  as  senator  for  Multnomah  county, 
the  incidents  of  which  long  and  useful  career  no  one 
recalls  without  credit  to  the  man  and  satisfaction 
to  his  constituency.  It  is  not  only,  however,  as  a 
legislator,  but  as  a  merchant,  as  a  member  of  society, 
and  above  all,  as  a  public-spirited  citizen,  that  the 

(594) 


SOLOMON   HIRSCH.  595 

record  of  his  life  merits  a  place  in  the  annals  of  his 
adopted  state.  To  men  of  this  stamp  is  due  the  pros- 
perity which  Oregon  enjoys  as  one  of  the  most 
steadily  progressive  sections  of  the  union,  and  which 
Portland  enjoys  as  the  second  commercial  emporium 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  as  the  seat  of  manufacturing 
enterprise,  and  with  a  volume  of  trade  that  would 
do  credit  to  a  city  with  thrice  her  population.  Take 
from  the  history  of  nations  or  of  states  the  achieve- 
ments of  such  men,  and  that  which  remains  is  seldom 
worth  recording.  Their  lives  is  the  life  of  the  country. 

Mr  Hirsch  was  born  on  the  25th  of  March  1839, 
in  Wurtemburg,  Germany.  His  father  was  a  poor 
man,  who  had  a  hard  struggle  to  maintain  a  large 
family  of  children  ;  his  mother  belonged  to  an  old  and 
much  respected  family  of  the  name  of  Kuhn,  all  of 
whose  members  had  long  been  residents  of  that 
country.  On  both  sides  his  parents  were  of  Hebrew 
extraction,  and  of  the  Hebrew  faith,  and  his  seven 
brothers  and  four  sisters  all  adhered  to  the  religion 
of  their  forefathers. 

After  completing  his  studies  he  came  at  fifteen 
years  of  age  to  the  United  States,  in  company  with 
his  brother  Edward,  who  later  served  two  consecutive 
terms  as  state  treasurer  of  Oregon.  He  at  once 
obtained  a  clerkship  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut, 
where,  however,  he  remained  only  for  a  few  months, 
proceeding  thence  to  New  York  city,  and  soon  after- 
ward to  Kochester,  New  Hampshire.  There  he 
remained  as  a  clerk  until  1858,  when  he  removed  to 
Oregon.  After  a  brief  residence  in  Salem,  he  engaged 
in  business  at  Dallas,  and  three  years  later  at  Silver- 
ton,  in  partnership  with  his  brother.  At  both  points 
he  was  very  successful,  and  there  laid  the  foundation 
of  his  fortune.  But  the  sphere  of  operations  was  too 
contracted  for  a  man  of  his  enterprise  and  ability,  and 
in  1864  he  went  to  Portland,  where  he  established 
a  general  wholesale  business  on  the  west  side  of 
Front  street  in  connection  with  L,  Fleishner  and  A, 


596  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

Schlussel,  under  the  firm  name  of  Fleishner  and  com- 
pany. Thus  it  continued  until  1874,  when  Jacob 
Mayer,  a  wholesale  dry-goods  merchant  was  admitted 
into  partnership,  and  the  style  of  the  firm  was 
changed  to  Fleishner,  Mayer  and  company,  which 
name  it  retains. 

Business  increased  rapidly,  so  that  in  the  following 
year  more  extensive  premises  were  needed,  and  they 
became  acknowledged  as  the  leading  dry-goods  house 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  outside  of  San  Francisco,  while 
their  sales  far  exceeded  those  of  some  of  the  more 
pretentious  establishments  in  that  metropolis.  This 
result  is  largely  due  to  the  energy  and  zeal  of  Mr 
Hirsch,  who  for  several  years  devoted  nearly  one-half 
of  his  time  to  travelling  as  a  salesman,  thus  becoming 
acquainted  with  many  of  the  most  prominent  men, 
not  only  in  Oregon,  but  in  Washington  and  Idaho. 
During  these  journeys  he  became  intimate  with  busi- 
ness men  throughout  the  northwest,  to  whom  he  so 
commended  himself,  that,  as  a  friend  of  his  remarked, 
"he  bound  them  to  him  with  bands  of  steel." 

Between  1866  and  1868  the  firm  was  interested  in 
the  Brownsville  Woolen  Manufacturing  company,  the 
products  of  which,  valued  at  about  $150,000  a  year, 
and  consisting  mainly  of  cassimeres,  doeskins,  tweeds, 
flannels,  and  blankets,  were  marketed  in  Oregon, 
California,  Idaho,  arid  Washington.  In  the  latter 
year,  however,  they  disposed  of  their  stock,  and  since 
that  date  have  taken  no  further  interest  in  the  con- 
cern. Among  the  reasons  for  their  withdrawal  was 
probably  a  decrease  in  the  demand  for  the  products 
of  the  mill,  caused  by  the  greater  volume  of  eastern 
goods  shipped  to  this  country  during  the  years  that 
followed  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  On  account  of 
the  high  rates  of  wages,  taxation,  and  interest,  the 
cost  of  fuel  and  water,  and  other  drawbacks,  such 
enterprises  at  that  time  found  little  favor  with  local 
capitalists. 

With  numerous  enterprises  beneficial  to  the  com- 


SOLOMON   HIRSCH.  597 

munity,  Mr  Hirsch  has  been  closely  identified,  aiding 
to  organize  and  build  them  up,  and  taking  stock  in 
others,  to  which  he  was  unable  to  give  personal 
attention.  The  success  of  many  such  undertakings 
has  been  due  to  his  executive  ability.  Among  his 
other  interests  apart  from  the  firm  may  be  mentioned 
his  investments  in  real  estate,  which  he  considers  the 
soundest  and  safest  of  all  his  business  ventures.  The 
correctness  of  his  judgment  is  proved  by  the  rapid  and 
continuous  advance  in  the  values  of  realty,  which  for 
several  years  ending  with  1881  increased  on  an  aver- 
age, within  the  city  limits  of  Portland,  twenty  per 
cent  annually,  while  for  1880,  the  appreciation  was 
forty  per  cent.  In  the  estimation  even  of  the  most 
conservative  men,  this  advance  was  entirely  legiti- 
mate, in  view  of  the  rapid  strides  made  in  railroad 
construction  and  the  vast  number  of  immigrants  set- 
tling on  lands  tributary  to  Portland. 

That  part  of  the  Pacific  coast  which  is  included 
in  the  United  States  has  long  been  noted  for  the 
number  of  its  millionaires,  and  nowhere  is  there  a 
larger  proportion  of  men  who,  if  they  do  not  count 
their  wealth  by  millions,  are  possessed  of  abundant 
means,  than  in  the  city  of  Portland.  In  no  other 
land  is  there  so  large  a  percentage  of  rich  men 
who  began  life  at  the  beginning.  Out  of  every  fifty 
men  who  may  be  called  wealthy  not  more  than  two 
or  three  at  most  brought  to  this  country  as  much 
as  $50,000,  and  of  those  who  retained  even  what  they 
brought,  though  they  may  since  have  gathered  wis- 
dom from  experience,  the  proportion  is  but  little 
greater.  Among  the  former  there  are  not  a  few  who 
are  ashamed  of  their  early  poverty  or  early  associates; 
but  most  of  our  capitalists  who  began  life  in  some 
humble  capacity,  as  a  clerk  in  a  store,  a  purveyor  in 
a  mining  camp,  a  retail  tradesman,  or  even  driving  a 
team  or  handling  a  pick,  have  the  manliness  and  good 
sense  rather  to  be  proud  of  their  early  career,  min- 
gling freely  with  the  friends  of  their  early  days,  and 


598  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

ready  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to  those  who  need 
assistance.  Such  a  man  is  Mr  Hirsch,  for  though 
now  enjoying  all  the  blessings  of  life,  an  ample  for- 
tune, a  constitution  unimpaired  by  dissipation  or 
excess,  the  society  of  family  and  friends,  the  respect 
and  good- will  of  his  fellow-men,  and  a  position  in  the 
ranks  of  commerce,  society,  and  politics  of  which  he 
may  well  be  proud,  he  remembers  without  shame  or 
regret  when  he  was  himself  an  almost  friendless 
youth,  struggling  to  gain  a  foothold.  Nor  are  these 
results  due  to  accident.  They  have  been  achieved 
by  the  exceptional  force  of  character,  the  marvellous 
energy  and  the  iron  will  of  one  in  whose  vocabulary 
there  is  no  such  word  as  fail.  The  leadership  of  such 
men  is  inevitable.  In  physique  Mr  Hirsch  is  a 
remarkable  specimen  of  mature  and  vigorous  man- 
hood. Nearly  six  feet  in  height  and  with  a  powerful 
and  well-developed  frame,  he  is  one  whose  stature 
and  build  would  alone  attract  attention.  With  regu- 
lar and  well-shaped  features,  jet-black  hair  and  beard 
of  luxuriant  growth,  dark,  penetrating  eyes,  and  a 
lofty  and  spacious  forehead,  his  appearance  fully  jus- 
tifies the  reputation  which  he  enjoys  as  one  of  the 
most  intelligent  looking  men  in  Portland — indeed,  a 
type  of  the  Hebrew  race,  to  which,  in  its  normal 
development,  Arnold  Guyot  ascribes  a  rank  second 
only  to  the  Greek  in  intellectual  and  physical  char- 
acter. 

Mr  Hirsch  has  been  identified  as  a  leader  with 
the  republican  party  in  Oregon  since  1864.  In  that 
year  it  happened  that  his  eldest  brother,  Mayer, 
then  a  prominent  merchant  in  Salem,  went  to  the 
eastern  states.  It  occurred  to  Solomon  Hirsch  that 
his  brother  was  well  qualified  for  the  position  of 
delegate  to  the  republican  national  convention,  soon 
to  be  held  at  Baltimore.  He  proceeded  to  Albany, 
where  the  state  convention  was  to  meet,  and  broached 
the  matter  to  a  few  of  his  friends,  all  of  whom  were 
in  favor  of  his  project.  After  a  sharp  struggle  he 


SOLOMON"  HIRSCH.  599 

succeeded  in  securing  his  brother's  election,  the 
remaining  delegates  from  Oregon  being  Josiah  Fail- 
ing, Thomas  H.  Pearne,  Frederick  Charman,  Hiram 
Smith,  and  J.  W.  Souther,  all  men  of  ability  and 
prominence.  Thus  was  the  state  represented  at  the 
second  nomination  for  the  presidency  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Of  Mayer  Hirsch  it  remains  only  to  be  said 
that  his  tact  and  ability  soon  brought  him  to  the 
front  rank  of  his  party,  and  that  no  one  was  more 
deeply  regretted  than  he  when,  a  few  years  later, 
during  a  business  visit  to  New  York,  his  career 
was  cut  short  by  a  fatal  sickness.  In  1872  Mr 
Hirsch  was  elected  a  member  of  the  lower  house  for 
Multnomah  county,  which  holds  the  control  in  the 
legislature  of  Oregon.  In  recognition  of  his  acknowl- 
edged financial  ability,  he  was  appointed  a  member  of 
the  committee  on  ways  and  means,  in  which  capacity 
he  used  all  the  weight  of  his  influence  in  support  of 
the  first  appropriation  for  the  building  of  the  state 
capitol.  In  1874  and  again  in  1878  and  1882  he  was 
chosen  by  the  same  county  for  the  state  senate,  on 
each  occasion  by  an  increased  majority,  while  having 
pitted  against  him  the  very  best  men  whom  the  demo- 
crats could  bring  forward.  His  first  opponent  was 
Judge  Strong,  a  most  able  and  popular  candidate  ;  and 
it  is  worthy  of  note  that  Mr  Hirsch  was  the  only  one 
selected  in  opposition  to  the  independent  ticket,  which 
then  almost  swept  the  field.  In  1878  his  opponent 
was  J.  B.  Congle,  a  successful  business  man  of  Port- 
land and  one  who  had  been  honored  with  many  pub- 
lic offices.  During  his  second  term  he  was  chosen 
president  of  the  senate  by  the  unanimous  republican 
voto  of  that  body,  and  while  in  that  position  his 
knowledge  of  the  rules  of  procedure,  his  rare  execu- 
tive ability,  and  his  strict  impartiality  gained  for 
him  the  approbation  even  of  his  political  adversaries. 
In  1882  he  defeated  John  Catlin  by  nearly  1,200 
votes.  This  being  the  largest  majority  ever  returned 
in  the  election  of  a  state  senator  is  sufficient  evi- 


600  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

dence  of  the  popularity  which  he  then  enjoyed.  In 
April  of  this  year,  at  the  state  convention  held  at 
Portland,  he  was  unanimously  recommended  by  the 
republican  delegation  from  his  county  as  a  member  of 
the  state  central  committee,  of  which  he  was  after- 
ward appointed  chairman.  To  his  able  management 
of  the  campaign,  which  resulted  from  the  first  time 
since  1870  in  the  election  of  a  republican  governor, 
was  largely  due  the  disastrous  defeat  of  the  dem- 
ocrats. Never,  it  is  said,  in  the  history  of  the  state 
was  a  political  campaign  more  skilfully  organized 
or  more  ably  managed.  In  this  year,  also,  he 
endeavored  to  secure  the  election  of  Mr  Mitchell 
to  the  United  States  senate,  but  after  a  protracted 
struggle,  was  compelled  to  retire  from  the  contest, 
the  choice  of  the  republicans  finally  centering  on  Sena- 
tor Dolph,  who  was,  however,  among  Mr  Hirsch's 
warmest  political  friends.  In  1885  Mr  Hirsch  was 
proposed  for  United  States  senator.  It  was  a  mem- 
orable occasion.  The  balloting  went  on  continuously 
for  forty  days,  Sundays  excepted,  during  all  of  which 
time  he  did  not  lose  a  single  vote.  Finally,  it  was 
found  impossible  to  come  to  a  decision,  and  thus 
for  the  first  time  since  her  admission,  the  state  of 
Oregon  was  without  her  proper  representation  in 
congress.  On  the  last  day  of  the  session  a  conven- 
tion met  at  noon  with  a  view  to  make  a  selection,  and 
continued  its  labors  until  eleven  o'clock  at  night. 
Meanwhile  Mr  Hirsch  called  for  a  recess,  in  order 
that  the  republicans  might  bring  forward  another 
candidate  ;  but  to  no  purpose,  for  after  casting  some 
forty  ballots,  the  senate  adjourned  without  making  a 
choice.  During  the  next  session  he  refused  to  per- 
mit his  name  to  appear,  Mr  Mitchell  thereupon  being 
selected,  and  a,t  the  expiration  of  his  term  he  retired 
from  politics,  except  that  in  1888  he  allowed  himself 
to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  republican  state  con- 
vention. Many  were  the  regrets  of  his  friends  and  of 
his  party  when  the  member  for  Multnomah  county 


SOLOMON  HIRSCH.  601 

appeared  for  the  last  time  on  the  floor  of  the  senate 
chamber,  for  none  were  more  respected  and  by  no  one 
could  his  place  be  filled.  For  he  was  admirably 
fitted  for  leadership,  not  only  by  his  intelligence  and 
commanding  presence,  but  by  other  essential  quali- 
ties. Calm  and  imperturbable  amid  the  strife  of 
debate,  he  allowed  nothing  to  ruffle  his  temper,  or  to 
bias  his  judgment ;  once  assured  that  he  was  in  the 
right,  he  knew  not  how  to  yield.  Ever  watchful  of 
the  interests  of  his  constituents  and  of  his  party,  there 
were  few  who  could  support  its  measures  with  more 
cogent  arguments,  or  could  detect  more  readily  the 
weak  points  in  those  of  his  opponents.  Though  not 
an  orator,  or  at  least  not  given  to  rhetorical  display, 
he  was  a  terse  and  forcible  speaker,  expressing  his 
ideas  in  neat  and  simple  phrase,  and  always  in  words 
suited  to  the  moment  and  the  place.  Regarding  his 
career  as  a  statesman,  Mr  Joseph  Simon,  himself  a 
conspicuous  republican  leader,  and  president  of  the 
state  senate  in  1889,  remarked:  ';  Mr  Hirsch  first 
became  closely  identified  with  politics  in  1872,  when 
he  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  being  chosen  state 

O  O 

senator  in  1874  and  except  for  a  period  of  twro  years 
serving  continuously  until  1886.  He  was  regarded 
as  a  suitable  man  to  represent  the  business  element  in 
the  community,  and  for  that  purpose  he  was  selected. 
At  the  session  of  1885  he  was  voted  for  and  was  the 
choice  of  the  people  and  of  the  legislature  for  United 
States  senator,  but  after  long  protracted  balloting 
was  not  elected,  though  he  lacked  only  three  or  four 
of  the  required  number  of  votes.  To  his  efforts, 
as  chairman  of  the  republican  state  central  commit- 
tee in  1882  is  attributed  the  success  of  the  party 
in  the  campaign  which  followed.  He  is  a  man  of 
great  ability,  with  remarkable  power  of  organiza- 
tion, and  well  acquainted  and  extremely  popular 
throughout  the  state."  And  thus  speaks  Matthew 
P.  Deady,  United  States  district  judge  for  Oregon  : 
"I  knew  Mr  Hirsch  in  1858,  when  he  first  came 


002  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

to  Oregon.  He  was  one  of  the  handsomest  men 
I  ever  saw,  tall,  erect,  well  built,  and  with  beautiful 
hair  and  beard.  Some  years  ago  he  was  drawn  into 
politics,  being  the  republican  nominee  first  for  the 
assembly  and  afterward  for  the  senate,  and  soon 
became  the  controlling  power  in  his  party,  having  in 
his  hands  the  making  and  unmaking  of  others.  Not- 
withstanding his  long  career  as  a  politician,  and  his 
intercourse  with  all  kinds  of  people,  there  is  nothing 
to  be  said  against  him  ;  lie  is  a  most  conscientious 
man,  temperate  in  his  habits  and  much  devoted  to  his 
family.  He  should  have  been  sent  to  the  United 
States  senate,  for  he  had  a  majority  of  his  party's 
votes.  But  for  his  own  sake,  it  was,  perhaps,  better 
that  he  subsequently  withdrew  from  the  contest, 
for  such  a  career  would  have  interfered  too  much 
with  his  business  interests."  On  the  1st  of  Feb- 
ruary 1870  Senator  Hirsch  was  married  in  the 
city  of  Portland  to  Miss  Josephine  Mayer,  the 
daughter  of  one  of  the  partners  in  the  firm  of  which 
he  is  still  an  active  member.  A  native  of  Louisiana, 
Mrs  Hirsch  removed  with  her  parents  to  California 
when  only  two  years  of  age,  and  afterward  became  a 
resident  of  Portland,  where  she  has  long  been  one  of 
the  leaders  in  society  and  is  universally  esteemed  for 
her  many  estimable  qualities.  Their  four  children 
are  all  natives  of  Portland,  where  they  attended 
school,  for  the  senator  is  satisfied  with  the  excellent 
local  facilities  for  education.  When  only  sixteen 
years  of  age,  their  only  son  had  outgrown  his  father 
in  stature,  being  then  six  feet  one  inch  in  height, 
and  already  gave  promise  of  an  honorable  and  use- 
ful career,  such  as  that  which  his  father  can  now 
look  back  upon  with  a  consciousness  of  a  well-ordered 
and  blameless  life.  In  1889,  in  recognition  of  his  fit- 
ness for  the  office,  his  substantial  popularity  and  his 
valuable  service  to  the  party  of  the  administration, 
President  Harrison  appointed  him  as  embassador  of 
the  United  States  at  the  court  of  Turkey,  The  dis- 


SOLOMON  HmSCH.  G03 

tinction  was  totally  unsolicited  on  the  part  of  Mr 
Hirsch,  nor  was  he  aware  of  the  appointment  until  it 
had  been  procured  for  him  through  the  friendly  zeal 
of  the  leaders  of  the  republican  party,  who  were  eager 
to  acknowledge  in  a  becoming  manner  their  own 

O  O 

indebtedness  to  him  and,  also,  to  gratify  their  con- 
stituency. Coming  to  him  as  it  did  he  was  much 
gratified  and  fully  appreciated  the  compliment.  He  is 
not  unaware  of  the  responsibilities  that  are  involved  in 
the  exalted  position  to  which  he  has  been  called,  and 
those  who  know  him  need  no  guarantee  that  he  will 
be  equal  to  any  emergency  that  may  arise,  or  that 
he  will  discharge  the  duties  of  his  trust  with 
dignity  and  credit.  When,  October  25,  1889,  after 
many  expressions  of  congratulation  and  good- will 
had  been  offered  him  in  public  and  in  private,  he 
left  Portland  for  Constantinople,  he  carried  with 
him  the  universal  confidence  and  affection  of  the  com- 
munity, their  only  solicitude  being  that  his  health, 
which  had  been  impaired  a  short  time  before  by  a 
severe  illness,  might  be  reestablished  by  travel  and 
change  of  scene.  His  fond  wish  was  to  keep  his 
family  together  with  him  at  all  times,  but  he  yielded 
to  the  importunity  of  his  son,  who  is  ambitious 
to  enter  commerce,  at  once,  and  allowed  him  to 
remain  with  the  business  house. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

LIFE  OF  LA   FAYETTE  GROVER. 

MASSACHUSETTS    COLONY — GROVER    FAMILY    IN    AMERICA  —  LA    FAYETTE 
GROVER'S  EARLY  EXPERIENCES  —  COMING   TO  OREGON  —  PROSECUTING 

ATTORNEY — MEMBER  OP  THE  LEGISLATURE — OFFICER  OF  VOLUNTEERS 

MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS — BUSINESS  AFFAIRS — GOVERNOR  OF  OREGON 

UNITED  STATES  SENATOR— CHARACTER. 

AMONG  those  who  in  1630  accompanied  Governor 
Winthrop's  colony  from  England  to  Massachusetts 
were  Thomas  Grover  and  his  wife  Eliza.  They  finally 
settled  near  Charlestown,  "on  the  mystic  side,"  now 
Maiden,  and  took  part  in  founding  the  first  church  in 
that  town.  Three  grandsons  of  these  first  settlers  in 
1702  bought  wild  lands  in  the  north  precinct  of 
Taunton,  afterwards  included  in  Norton,  now  Mans- 
field, Massachusetts,  which  had  originally  been  granted 
to  Captain  Miles  Standish  for  defending  the  colony 
against  Indians,  and  made  their  homes  there.  They 
joined  in  organizing  the  first  church  in  Norton,  which 
about  that  time  was  incorporated  by  itself,  and  one 
of  them  became  a  deacon  of  this  primitive  church. 
James  Grover,  a  descendant  of  one  of  these,  with  five 
sons  and  three  daughters,  removed  in  1781  to  a  wil- 
derness district  in  Oxford  county,  Maine,  now  Bethel, 
where  he  organized  the  first  church  of  that  settlement, 
becoming  its  senior  deacon.  The  early  Grovers  in 
Massachusetts  intermarried  with  the  Austins,  Chad- 
wicks,  Coxes,  and  other  substantial  New  England 
families.  They  were  deacons  in  the.  church,  and 

( 604 ) 


LAFAYETTE   GEOVER.  605 

selectmen  of  the  towns  in  which  they  lived,  "in  good 
old  colony  times."  They  served  in  the  early  Indian 
wars  in  New  England,  in  the  old  French  war  of  1755 
for  the  reduction  of  Canada  to  English  rule,  and  in 
the  war  of  the  revolution.  John  Grover,  eldest  son 
of  Deacon  James  Grover,  was  the  proprietor's  agent 
in  surveying  and  laying  out  the  town  of  Bethel,  and 
in  constructing  roads  to  connect  it  with  neighboring 
towns.  The  Grovers  purchased  extensive  tracts  of 
land  in  the  southwest  quarter  of  the  town,  extending 
from  the  Androscoggin  river  up  to  a  series  of  eleva- 
tions then  and  now  called  Grover  hills,  where  they 
established  the  permanent  homes  of  the  family  in 
Maine.  Here,  in  1783,  was  born  John  Grover,  the 
son  of  John,  a  distinguished  physician,  surgeon,  and 
scholar,  who  for  more  than  fifty  years  practised  his 
profession  throughout  that  part  of  the  state. 

Dr  Grover  served  as  an  assistant-surgeon  in  the 
war  of  1812.  He  was  a  member  of  the  convention 
which  framed  the  constitution  of  Maine  in  1819,  and 
after  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  union  he  served 
in  both  branches  of  the  legislature  for  several  years. 
But  when  in  1830  it  became  necessary  for  him  to 
choose  whether  he  would  give  his  services  to  the 
public  or  to  his  profession,  he  definitely  chose  the 
latter,  and  ever  afterwards  during  a  long  life  was 
wholly  devoted  to  its  practice.  He  accepted  the 
position  of  surgeon-in-chief  of  the  military  forces 
called  into  service  under  General  Scott  to  repel  the 
invasion  of  Maine  by  British  troops  in  1837,  during 
the  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  as  to  the  northeastern  boundary  of  that  state. 
Dr  Grover  was  an  enthusiastic  promoter  of  education 
of  all  classes,  and  for  thirty  years  he  was  president  of 
the  board  of  trustees  of  Gould's  academy  in  Bethel, 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  founders.  He  died  in 
1867. 

He  was  the  father  of  four  sons,  Abernethy,  Talley- 
rand, La  Fayette,  and  Cuvier,  and  of  two  daughters 


606  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

who  died  young.  The  three  eldest  sons  were  chiefly 
educated  at  Gould's  academy,  Bethel,  and  at  Bowdoin 
college;  the  youngest  son  at  West  Point  military 
academy. 

Major  Abernethy  Grover  followed  a  business 
career;  served  as  a  member  of  the  Maine  legislature, 
and  of  the  governor's  council  of  that  state ;  and 
throughout  the  late  civil  war  he  served  as  captain 
and  major  of  the  13th  regiment  of  Maine  volunteers. 
By  appointment  of  President  Cleveland,  he  was  regis- 
ter of  the  United  States  land  office  at  Miles  City, 
Montana. 

Professor  Talleyrand  Grover  was  for  nine  years 
professor  of  languages  in  Delaware  college,  at  New- 
ark, Delaware  ;  a  part  of  this  period  he  was  instructor 
of  the  modern  languages,  of  which  he  was  a  perfect 
master,  having  spent  some  time  in  Europe  in  their 
acquisition.  He  was  afterwards  professor  of  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew,  in  which  languages  he  was 
equally  versed.  He  resigned  his  position  to  pursue 
his  literary  studies  abroad.  He  was  a  young  man  of 
great  brilliancy  and  promise,  but  died  prematurely  at 
the  university  of  Up  sail  a,  in  Sweden,  in  1859. 

General  Cuvier  Grover  graduated  at  West  Point 
in  1 850.  During  his  whole  course  at  that  institution, 
after  the  first  year,  his  name  appeared  in  the  list  of 
distinguished  cadets  annually  published  in  the  army 
register.  His  history  is  well  known  as  the  distin- 
guished division  commander  of  that  name  during  the 
late  war.  He  died  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-eight,  his 
life  being  cut  short  by  extreme  hardships  and  wounds 
incident  to  his  military  services. 

La  Fayette  Grover,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who 
became  the  first  representative  in  congress  from  the 
state  of  Oregon,  and  afterwards  governor  of  that  state 
and  senator  of  the  United  States,  was  the  third  son 
of  Dr  John  and  Fanny  Grover.  The  mother  of  this 
family,  a  woman  of  marked  character,  was  a  descend- 
ant, on  the  mother's  side,  of  the  Woodman  family  of 


LAFAYETTE  GROVER.  607 

Massachusetts,  whose  first  ancestor  came  from  New- 
bury,  England,  and  settled  in  Newbury,  now  New- 
buryport,  in  1635,  and  who  was  one  of  the  early 
magistrates  of  the  town.  Governor  La  Fayette 
Grover  was  born  in  Bethel,  Maine,  November  29, 
1823,  was  educated  at  the  classical  academy  of  that 
town,  and  at  Bowdoin  college,  Maine.  He  studied 
law  in  Philadelphia  under  the  instruction  of  the  late 
Asa  I.  Fish,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  there  in 
March  1850.  Late  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  he 
took  passage  on  a  merchant  vessel  bound  round  Cape 
Horn  to  San  Francisco,  where  he  arrived  in  July 
1851,  and  in  the  next  month  he  arrived  in  Portland, 
Oregon,  by  the  old  steamer  Columbia,  then  on  one  of 
her  early  trips.  He  at  once  proceeded  to  Salem,  the 
capital  of  the  territory,  and  established  himself  as  a 
lawyer.  The  first  regular  term  of  the  United  States 
district  court  was  held  at  Salem  in  the  following 
month,  and  on  the  invitation  of  Chief-justice  Nelson, 
who  presided  over  the  court,  Mr  Grover  became  the 
clerk,  stipulating  that  he  would  accept  the  position 
temporarily,  and  until  a  suitable  successor  could  be 
appointed.  He  held  the  office  six  months,  obtaining 
an  excellent  acquaintance  with  local  court  procedure, 
and  with  jurors,  witnesses,  and  litigants.  The  follow- 
ing spring,  resigning  the  clerkship,  he  formed  a  law 
partnership  with  Benjamin  F.  Harding.  With  him 
Mr  Grover  at  once  entered  upon  a  general  and  lucra- 
tive practice,  which  lasted  for  several  years. 

In  1852  he  was  elected  by  the  legislature  prose- 
cuting attorney  of  the  second  judicial  district  of  the 
territory,  which  district  then  extended  from  Oregon 
City  to  the  California  line.  In  1853  he  was  elected 
and  served  as  member  of  the  territorial  legislature. 
During  the  summer  of  this  year  serious  hostilities  of 
the  Rogue  River  Indians  occurred  in  southern  Ore- 
gon, and  Mr  Grover  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Curry  recruiting  officer  to  raise  volunteer  troops  to 
aid  the  settlers  against  the  hostiles.  This  was 


608  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

promptly  done,  and  a  company  was  at  once  mustered 
at  Salem,  of  which  J.  W.  Nesmith  was  elected  cap- 
tain and  L.  F.  Grover  first  lieutenant.  These  troops, 
with  a  pack-train  loaded  with  arms,  ammunition,  and 
supplies,  hastened  south  to  the  aid  of  the  hard-pressed 
settlers  in  southern  Oregon.  At  the  close  of  hostili- 
ties in  September,  Mr  Grover  appeared  as  deputy 
United  States  district  attorney  in  the  district  courts 
in  the  southern  counties,  then  being  held  for  the  first 
time  by  Judge  M.  P.  Deady.  Congress  having 
assumed  the  compensation  of  settlers  whose  property 
had  been  destroyed  by  hostile  Indians  during  the 
Rogue  River  war  of  1853,  Mr  Grover  was  appointed 
one  of  the  commissioners  to  assess  the  spoliations, 
and  served  as  president  of  the  board,  in  1854.  He 
was  again  returned  as  a  member  of  the  legislature 
from  Marion  county  in  1855,  and  served  as  speaker 
of  the  house  during  the  session  of  1855-6. 

During  this  period  the  combined  Indian  tribes  from 
the  California  line  to  the  British  boundary  attacked 
the  frontier  settlements  in  a  determined  manner 
throughout  Oregon  and  Washington,  and  two  thou- 
sand volunteers  were  called  into  the  field  to  cooperate 
with  the  regular  forces  for  their  suppression.  In  this 
movement  on  the  part  of  Oregon  Mr  Grover  aided 
in  raising  troops,  and  served  in  the  field  throughout 
the  Yakima  campaign  on  the  staff  of  Colonel  Nesmith. 
He  served  the  following  year  as  a  member  of  the 
military  commission,  appointed  by  the  secretary  of 
war  under  authority  of  an  act  of  congress,  in  auditing 
and  reporting  to  the  war  department  the  expenses  of 
Oregon  and  Washington  incurred  in  suppressing  Ind- 
ian hostilities  of  1855-6.  On  this  commission  his 
co-laborers  were  captains  A.  J.  Smith  and  Rufus 
Ingalls. 

The  people  of  Oregon  having  resolved  to  form  a 
constitution,  and  to  apply  for  admission  to  the  union 
as  a  state,  the  voters  of  Marion  county  elected  Mr 
Grover  a  member  of  the  convention  which  was  con- 


LAFAYETTE  GROVER.  609 

vened  for  that  purpose  at  Salem  in  1857.  In  that 
convention  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee 
on  the  bill  of  rights,  and  as  member  of  several  other 
important  committees,  and  took  an  active  and  promi- 
nent part  in  giving  direction  to  the  work  of  that  body. 

Upon  the  holding  of  a  general  election  under  the 
constitution  of  the  new  state,  Mr  Grover  was  returned 
as  the  first  representative  in  congress  from  Oregon. 
The  chief  work  of  the  Oregon  delegation  at  this  time 
was  devoted  to  securing  the  admission  of  the  state  to 
the  union,  and  the  assumption  of  the  Oregon  Indian 
war  debt. 

Retiring  from  the  thirty -fifth  congress,  he  devoted 
himself  almost  exclusively  for  ten  years  to  professional 
and  business  pursuits.  He  formed  a  law  partnership 
at  Salem  with  the  late  Joseph  S.  Smith,  subsequently 
member  of  congress,  which  was  afterwards  extended 
to  Portland,  including  W.  W.  Page.  This  firm  con- 
ducted a  very  important  and  lucrative  practice  through- 
out the  state  for  several  years. 

Taking  an  early  and  active  interest  in  the  establish- 
ment of  manufactures  in  the  new  state,  Mr  Grover, 
with  some  others  organized  the  Willamette  Woollen 
Manufacturing  company  at  Salem  in  1856.  This 
corporation  had  in  view  the  introduction  to  the  state 
capital,  by  canal  and  natural  channels,  the  waters  of 
the  Santiam  river  as  power  for  general  manufactures0 
He  became  one  of  the  directors  of  the  company,  and 
remained  in  this  connection  for  fifteen  years,  during 
which  period  this,  the  first  broad  enterprise  for  man- 
ufactures in  Oregon,  attained  large  proportions  and 
great  success. 

In  1860  Mr  Grover  purchased  the  shares  of  Joseph 
Watt  in  this  corporation,  and  became  owner  of  one- 
third  of  all  the  mills  and  water-power  of  Salem. 
From  1867  to  1871  he  was  manager  of  the  company. 
Under  his  direction  the  Salem  flouring  mills,  which 
had  been  begun,  were  completed,  including  the  putting 
in  of  all  the  machinery  and  works,  and  constructing  a 

C.  B.— II.    39 


610  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

steamboat  canal  from  the  river  to  the  mills.  These 
flouring  mills  were  a  marked  success  from  the  start, 
and  were  the  first  direct  shippers  of  Oregon  flour  by 
the  cargo  to  foreign  countries.  The  operations  of 
this  company  were  great  stimulants  to  the  growth  of 
wheat  and  wool  in  early  Oregon,  and  facilitated  many 
other  business  enterprises  in  all  directions.  The 
unfortunate  destruction  of  the  Salem  woollen  mills  by 
fire  occurred  subsequently  to  Mr  Grover's  retirement 
from  the  company. 

In  1866  he  presided  over  the  democratic  state  con- 
vention of  that  year,  and  was  elected  chairman  of  the 
state  central  committee,  which  position  he  held  for 
four  years.  During  this  period  the  democratic  party 
attained  the  ascendency  in  the  politics  of  the  state, 
which  it  had  not  had  since  1860. 

In  1870  Mr  Grover  was  elected  by  the  democratic 
party  as  governor  of  the  state  for  four  years,  and  in 
1874  he  was  reflected  to  the  same  position,  which  he 
held  till  1877,  when  he  entered  the  senate  of  the 
United  States,  having  been  elected  to  that  position 
by  the  legislative  assembly  at  its  September  session 
of  the  previous  year.  In  his  canvass  for  the  gover- 
norship he  based  the  chief  issue  on  the  abrogation  of 
the  Burlingame  treaty  with  China,  though  the  sub- 
ject was  not  mentioned  in  the  platform  of  either  polit- 
ical party. 

During  Governor  Grover's  term  as  chief  executive, 
which  lasted  nearly  seven  years,  many  changes  took 
place,  and  unusual  progress  was  made  in  business 
enterprises,  and  in  the  general  condition  of  Oregon. 
His  first  step  as  executive  was  to  put  in  force  a  law 
which  had  been  enacted  two  years  previously,  but  not 
executed,  providing  for  tug-boats  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  river,  and  a  subsidy  for  their  support.  This 
movement  gave  the  first  reliable  basis  for  a  coastwise 
and  foreign  commerce  from  Oregon's  great  river, 
which  took  root  vigorously,  and  has  increased  ever 
since  to  its  now  strong  proportions. 


LAFAYETTE  GROVER.  611 

He  favored  the  construction  of  the  locks  at  the 
Willamette  falls  by  a  private  company,  assisted  by 
aid  from  the  state.  The  project  was  successful,  and 
opened  the  Willamette  river  to  competition  with  the 
railroads,  and  reduced  freights  throughout  the  Wil- 
lamette valley  to  such  extent  as  to  stimulate  greatly 
farm  production  and  general  commerce. 

Another  object  of  his  administration  was  the  secur- 
ing to  the  state  the  segregation  and  patenting  of  all 
public  lands  to  which  Oregon  was  entitled  under  vari- 
ous grants  by  congress,  and  a  recognition  of  her  rights 
to  the  tide  lands  which  she  held  by  reason  of  her 
sovereignty  as  a  state.  All  these  rights  became 
recognized,  and  a  large  proportion  of  these  lands  was 
secured  to  Oregon  during  Governor  Grover's  admin- 
istration. 

He  also  favored  the  erection  of  permanent  public 
buildings  for  the  state,  and  during  his  term  of  office 
penitentiary  buildings  and  the  sfcatehouse  were  erected 
of  permanent  and  enduring  structure,  an  example  of 
economy  and  honesty  in  public  work.  One  feature 
may  be  noted  in  these  buildings :  they  were  erected 
at  an  expense  inside  of  the  estimates  of  the  architects 
— quite  unusual  in  such  cases.  While  the  statehouse 
was  not  at  first  carried  to  full  completion,  its  mason, 
work  was  all  done,  the  entire  roof  put  on,  and  so  much 
of  the  interior  was  finished  as  to  render  it  suitable  for 
the  convenience  of  the  state  offices,  the  legislature, 
and  the  supreme  court. 

The  grants  by  congress  for  the  establishment  and 
support  of  a  state  university  and  for  an  agricultural 
college  in  Oregon  having  been  secured  and  utilized, 
Governor  Grover  interested  himself  in  promoting  the 
organization  of  these  institutions,  which  was  also 
accomplished  during  his  term  of  office.  There  was 
also,  during  the  same  period,  founded  at  Salem  the 
institution  for  deaf  mutes  and  the  school  for  the  blind. 

Having  labored  to  secure  to  the  state  the  indemnity 
common  school  lands,  held  in  lieu  of  those  occupied 


614  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

constantly  for  the  modification  of  our  treaties  with 
China,  and  for  the  enactment  of  laws  excluding  the 
Chinese  from  immigrating  to  this  country.  He  made 
speeches  on  the  extension  of  time  to  the  Northern 
Pacific  railway  company  for  the  completion  of  this 
road,  on  the  several  Chinese  exclusion  bills,  and  in 
secret  session  on  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  with 
China  modifying  the  Burlingarne  treaty  of  1868,  and 
on  other  subjects. 

His  health  being  impaired,  Mr  Grover  determined 
on  his  retirement  from  the  senate,  in  1883,  to  with- 
draw from  public  life,  and  in  future  to  devote  himself 
exclusively  to  his  personal  and  private  business  affairs, 
which  had  long  suffered  neglect. 

Not  proposing  to  return  to  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession, he  entered  vigorously  upon  the  improvement 
and  disposal  of  tracts  of  real  estate  immediately  adja- 
cent to  the  city  of  Portland,  owned  in  part  by  himself 
and  in  part  by  his  wife. 

Having  purchased  a  quarter  interest  in  lands  now 
known  as  Carter's  addition  to  Portland  several  years 
prior,  he  joined  with  the  other  owners  in  laying  out 
and  establishing  that  extension  of  the  city.  In  1884 
Mr  and  Mrs  Grover  laid  out  and  dedicated  a  tract  of 
high  land  belonging  to  her,  the  gift  of  her  parents,  in 
the  northwest  elevation  of  the  city,  as  Grover's  addi- 
tion to  Portland,  naming  it  Portland  Heights,  which 
name  became  so  contagious  that  all  the  high  grounds 
now  forming  the  southwest  part  of  the  city  bear  that 
name.  As  a  business  movement  these  enterprises 
have  proved  a  great  success,  and  these  broken  hills, 
once  so  forbidding,  are  now  occupied  with  fine  resi- 
dences, and  form  a  most  beautiful  and  attractive  part 
of  Portland. 

Mr  Grover  has  made  other  real  estate  investments 
to  the  west  of  the  city,  in  the  path  of  its  future  exten- 
sion. He  became  one  of  the  original  incorporators 
and  stockholders  of  the  Ainsworth  National  bank  of 
Portland  in  1885,  and  later  of  the  Portland  Trust 


LAFAYETTE  GROVER.  615 

company  of  Oregon.  He  is  also  interested  in  the 
Portland  Building  and  Loan  association,  and  in  the 
Portland  Cable  Kail  way  company.  He  has  also 
invested  in  coal  lands.  He  is  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Portland  board  of  trade,  and  takes  a  lively 
interest  in  the  rapidly  increasing  commerce  of  Oregon. 
Mr  Grover  was  married  in  1865  to  Miss  Elizabeth 
Carter,  youngest  daughter  of  the  late  Thomas  Carter, 
an  early  resident  of  Portland,  who  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  merchants  and  real  estate  owners  of 
that  city,  and  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  town.  It 
is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  Mrs  Grover  is  one 
of  the  well-known  women  of  the  state,  a  lady  of  high 
accomplishments  and  culture,  and  of  artistic  tastes, 
possessed  also  of  beauty  and  a  graceful  and  distin- 
guished manner.  Throughout  all  the  varvinoj  fortunes 

*/  O 

and  misfortunes  of  her  husband — for  he  has  at  times 
met  with  adverse  currents — she  has  been  his  steady 
companion  and  support.  They  are  communicants  of 
the  episcopal  church. 

Their  son,  John  Cuvier  Grover,  a  youth  of  twenty- 
three  summers,  so  named  after  his  grandfather  and 
uncle,  the  sole  offspring  of  this  union,  was  educated 
at  the  Peekskill  military  academy,  New  York,  and  is 
now  completing  his  studies  in  Europe. 

Thus  we  have  traced  the  leading  incidents  of  the 
career  of  La  Fayette  Grover,  scholar,  lawyer,  law- 
giver, and  man  of  business.  In  appearance  he  is  a  man 
of  imposing  presence,  six  feet  in  height,  and  with  a 
slender  but  vigorous  and  well-proportioned  frame. 
His  strongly  marked  but  regular  and  expressive  fea- 
tures bear  the  stamp  of  intelligence  and  power,  while  in 
his  steel-blue,  deep-set,  penetrating  eyes  may  be  read 
the  determination  and  force  of  will  characteristic  of 
one  who  has  raised  himself  to  a  foremost  rank  among 
the  statesmen  of  Oregon,  and  to  a  national  reputation. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

LIFE  OF  PHILIP  A.   MARQUAM. 

ANCESTRY — MATERNAL  AND  PATERNAL  CHARACTERISTICS — HOME  BUILDING 
IN  A  WILDERNESS — A  BOY'S  MANLY  EFFORTS — LABOR  WITH  HANDS  AND 
HEAD — CALIFORNIA  PIONEERSHIP— LAW  AND  REAL  ESTATE  IN  OREGON — 
THE  IDEA  THAT  CONTROLLED  A  LIFE — A  LONG,  PATIENT,  AND  PECULIAR 
STRUGGLE — ITS  HAPPY  AND  USEFUL  RESULTS — THE  INDIVIDUALITY  OP  A 
STRONG  AND  GOOD  MAN. 

AT  the  close  of  the  year  1890,  the  date  at  which 
I  am  occupied  with  the  biographical  history  of 
Philip  Augustus  Marquam,  I  have  not  only  enjoyed 
the  experience  of  somewhat  more  than  a  year  in 
analyzing  the  work  and  character  of  the  Builders  of 
the  Commonwealth,  which  enlarges  my  ability  for 
the  task,  but  also  in  this  labor,  which  to  me  has  been 
one  of  love,  I  have  realized  at  every  step  that  the 
plan  of  the  enterprise,  which  was  as  much  an  evolu- 
tion of  attendant  circumstances  as  a  creation  of  my 
own  mind,  has  even  more  to  commend  it  in  practice 
than  that  which  in  the  outset  made  it  so  attractive 
to  me  in  theory.  Through  the  most  interesting 
medium,  that  is  to  say,  the  personality  of  men  who 
are  history -makers,  I  have  already  seen  something 
of  the  marvellous  growth  of  the  Pacific  coast  under 
strange  and  original  conditions.  Facts  so  presented 
possess  the  charm  of  humanity,  the  peculiar  attrac- 
tiveness of  truth  expressed  in  the  vitality  of  original 
creating  minds.  The  field  of  the  work  is  very  large, 
while  the  variety  it  develops  is  still  greater.  "His- 
tory," says  Carlyle,  "  is  the  essence  of  innumerable 

(616) 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  617 

biographies."  And  I  would  say,  as  supplementary 
of  this,  that  the  essence  of  biography  is  found  in  the 
lives  of  those  whose  thinkings  and  doings  are  not 
"  significant  of  themselves  only,  but  of  larger  masses 
of  mankind."  Such  factors  as  these  carry  about  with 
them  volumes  of  unwritten  history  which,  when 
thoroughly  studied  and  clearly  comprehended,  reveal 
not  only  themselves  but  make  manifest  the  spirit  of 
the  times  and  the  conditions  in  which  all  others  in  the 
community  move  and  have  their  being.  While, 
therefore,  no  life  is  without  its  interest,  be  the  man 
ever  so  humble  or  obscure,  it  seems  evident  also 
that  there  will  be  but  little  of  vital  history  left  to  be 
recorded  if,  having  always  the  historical  idea  in  view, 
I  am  able  to  chronicle  fairly  and  fully  the  lives  of  a 
comparatively  few  creating  and  governing  spirits  who 
are  the  recognized  exponents  of  empire-building 
within  the  territory  to  which  my  enquiry  is  restricted. 
Yet  only  plain  business  men,  as  a  rule,  men  who  have 
builded  however  broad  and  deep,  with  hands  and 
head,  are  contemplated  in  my  researches — those  who 
without  pomp  and  circumstance — have  by  rugged 
intellect  and  force  of  character  controlled  the  destiny 
of  themselves  and  their  neighborhood,  and  have 
founded  together,  each  laboring  in  his  own  sphere,  an 
industrial  realm  which  challenges  the  world  to  com- 
parison for  the  things  done,  and  for  the  energy, 
ingenuity,  and  rapidity  of  their  achievements.  Each 
of  such  factors  is  an  individual  force,  a  law  unto  him- 
self in  his  acts  and  methods;  and  while  he  is  a  part  of 
the  social  organism,  he  is  yet  distinct  from  all  others 
in  thought  and  act.  The  historical  importance  of 
studying  such  an  agency  is  evident,  while  the  philo- 
sophic or  scientific  endeavor  to  penetrate  beneath  the 
surface  of  facts  and  explore  what  an  eminent  English 
scholar  designates  as  the  mystery  of  the  man,  is  riot 
less  important. 

Judge  Marquam,   as  he   is  appropriately  called,  by 
reason    of  judicial    service   to    the  people,    and  also 


618  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

because  the  title  fits  him,  was  born  February  28, 
1823,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Baltimore,  Maryland. 
His  father,  Philip  Winchester  Marquam,  was  a  native 
of  England.  Having  served  his  apprenticeship  as 
cabinet-maker,  he  emigrated  to  America  in  the  twenty- 
first  year  of  his  age.  His  father  was  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant, and  master  of  one  of  his  own  vessels.  No 
effort  has  yet  been  made  by  the  descendants  of  the 
Marquams  in  this  country  to  trace  their  genealogy, 
the  disposition  among  our  people  being  rather  to  look 
to  the  substance  of  things  than  to  heraldry;  which 
lack  of  sentiment  I  cannot  commend  altogether, 
although  I  am  much  in  the  same  category  with  the 
majority  as  regards  the  genealogical  tree.  I  regard 
it  as  only  an  honest  and  natural  pride  to  preserve  a 
good  name  with  all  its  surroundings.  Moreover  I 
look  upon  the  history  of  a  worthy  family  name  as  a 
stimulant;  as  a  standard  to  be  upheld  and  enhanced 
in  its  lustre,  if  possible,  by  those  who  inherit  it.  All 
along  the  line  of  history  we  have  instances  in  which 
such  a  name  has  acted  as  a  tonic,  and  an  incentive 
to  deeds  of  great  usefulness,  virtue,  and  heroism. 
From  the  meagre  information  I  have  at  command,  I 
judge  that  the  Marquams  in  England  were  sturdy, 
thrifty  people  of  the  middle  class,  from  among  whom 
fresh  blood  is  obtained  wherewith  to  keep  the  upper 
and  ever  deteriorating  classes  of  that  country  vita- 
lized, notably  in  the  house  of  Lords  as  well  as  in  the 
house  of  Commons.  The  Marquam  who  came  to 
America,  as  mentioned,  settled  in  Maryland,  where 
it  seems  he  did  not  long  live  before  he  asserted  his 
character  and  capabilities  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make 
an  eligible  marriage,  his  wife  being  Charlotte  Mer- 
cer Poole,  whose  father  was  a  wealthy  planter.  The 
Poole  manor  is  the  present  site  of  Poole ville,  near 
Baltimore. 

He  was  an  adept  in  the  trade  which  was  his  spec- 
ialty, but  he  was  a  good  mechanic  otherwise  and 
possessed  something  of  inventive  faculty.  Among 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  619 

his  inventions  were  several  mowers,  and  a  pencil 
machine.  He  probably  invented  the  first  mowing 
machine,  which 'implement,  however,  did  not  come  into 
use  until  years  afterward.  The  reason  was  that  it 
was  not  adapted  to  the  country,  which  was  in  pio- 
neer condition,  covered  with  rocks  and  stumps.  The 
prairie  lands  out  west,  where  such  a  machine  could 
be  used  to  advantage,  were  not  generally  known  at 
that  time.  Mr  Marquam  was  a  man  of  good  stand- 
ing and  possessed  of  considerable  means.  He  was 
enterprising,  and  built  a  massive  stone  mill,  and  a 
large  hotel.  He  was  actively  engaged  in  improving 
his  estate  when  a  serious  illness  befel  him,  lasting 
three  years.  In  addition  to  this  misfortune  the 
country  suffered  a  season  of  hard  times,  and  having 
many  security  debts  to  pay  for  his  neighbors  he  was 
financially  wrecked.  But  he  was  an  energetic,  clear- 
headed, determined  man,  and  did  not  allow  his  mis- 
fortune to  overwhelm  him.  With  the  small  rem- 
nants of  his  fortune  he  removed  to  what  was  then 
the  west. 

He  was  a  man  of  strict  integrity,  punctilious  in 
honor,  and  scrupulously  moral,  though  not  religious 
in  the  sense  of  being  allied  to  any  church.  Mrs 
Marquam  was  a  woman  of  fair  education  for  her  day 
and  generation  ;  a  strict  member  of  the  methodist 
church,  of  even  temperament,  devoted  to  her  chil- 
dren, whom  she  was  ambitious  to  see  grow  up  to  be 
self-respecting  and  respected  men  and  w^omen,  religious 
and  useful  citizens.  She  governed  her  family  by  the 
rule  of  love,  and  such  was  the  devotion  of  her  chil- 
dren to  her  that  the  occasion  for  punishment  seldom 
occurred.  It  was  a  slave-holding  community  in 
which  the  Marquams  lived  in  Maryland,  and  Mr 
Marquam  himself  owned  a  few  negroes.  When  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  Maryland  he  also 
decided  to  leave  slavery  behind  him.  He  sold  his 
negroes  but  did  not  do  so  arbitrarily ;  he  gave  them 
the  opportunity  to  select  for  their  future  masters 


620  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

those  with  whom  they  preferred  to  live  and  work. 
Mr  and  Mrs  Marquam  removed  to  Ohio  with  eight 
children,  four  boys  and  four  girls.  Two  children 
were  born  to  them  afterward.  From  Ohio  they 
went  to  Lafayette,  Indiana,  which,  at  that  time,  was 
a  small  village.  When  the  family  landed  there  they 
managed,  by  the  sale  of  a  horse  to  raise  $100  with 
which  an  eighty-acre  tract  of  land  was  purchased, 
and  as  William  Edward  the  oldest  son  was  of  age 
the  land  was  entered  in  his  name,  as  an  inducement 
for  him  to  remain  and  help  improve  the  land ;  the 
older  children  were  well  educated,  only  the  younger 
ones  suffering  in  this  respect  as  a  result  of  the  father's 
financial  troubles.  Henry,  to  educate  whom  special 
effort  was  made  by  all  the  rest,  because  he  was  not 
physically  so  strong  as  they,  got  a  common-school 
training,  and  taught  in  the  neighborhood.  As  an 
indication  of  how  frugal  thev  had  to  be  in  order  to 

O  v 

get  on  at  all,  it  may  be  stated  that  Henry,  with  a 
friend,  hired  a  room  and  boarded  themselves,  and 
that  Philip  made  a  trip  to  town  once  a  week  to  carry 
their  provisions  to  them.  As  a  reward  of  applica- 
tion and  industry,  united  with  this  sort  of  economy, 
Henry  became  a  fairly  educated  man  in  the  English 
branches,  and  in  Latin  and  Greek.  He  subsequently 
graduated  in  surgery  and  medicine  in  Cincinnati,  and 
became  a  successful  practitioner  in  several  states. 

There  were  eleven  children  named  as  follows  in  the 
order  of  their  age;  Elizabeth  married  John  Young,  a 
farmer,  settling  themselves  in  Ohio;  William  Edward, 
farmer,  and  afterward  merchant,  married  Jane  C. 
Cochren,  of  Indiana,  who  was  possessed  of  some 
wealth.  They  located  themselves  in  Caldwell  county, 
Missouri,  and  founded  the  town  of  Meribill.  There 
Edward  entered  into  the  mercantile  business,  built  a 
mill,  carding  works,  carried  on  a  large  farm,  and  with 
his  oldest  son  drove  large  numbers  of  horses  and 
mules  south  which  were  sold  on  credit  until  the  war 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  621 

of  the  rebellion  when  his  debts  were  refused  pay- 
ment. This  broke  him  up.  He  then  removed  to 
Wellman,  Iowa,  with  the  remnant  of  his  fortune. 
His  son  William  Henry  entered  the  union  army  and 
fought  under  Grant  at  Vicksburg.  Sarah  Ann 
learned  the  millinery  trade,  married  James  Wallace  a 
chair-maker  and  house-painter,  settled  himself  in 
Lafayette,  Indiana,  became  wealthy,  had  three  sons 
and  a  daughter,  Mary  Ann  a  highly  cultivated  and 
intellectual  woman  who  married  L.  M.  Brown,  a 
wealthy  merchant.  Wilson  Dewitt  Wallace  is  an 
attorney  at  law  ;  he  and  his  brother  Philip,  the  latter 
as  surgeon  were  in  the  union  army,  William  N.,  the 
youngest,  is  a  druggist. 

Alfred  mentioned  again  later,  learned  the  chair- 
making  and  house-painting  trades  with  James  Wal- 
lace, and  after  travelling  through  the  southern  states 
for  several  years  settled  himself  in  Liberty,  Missouri. 
He  married  Olive  C.  Burbage  and  in  1845  emigrated 
to  Oregon  and  settled  himself  on  a  section  of  land 
in  Clackarnas  county.  He  raised  a  large  family  of 
children  most  of  whom  are  settled  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  are  farmers.  Pamele  married  Allen  Kil- 
gore,  a  farmer  of  Indiana.  Charlotte  married  John 
Holiday,  farmer, who  settled  in  White  county,  Indiana 
where  most  of  his  children  are  living  in  good  cir- 
cumstances. 

Henry  Poole,  before  mentioned,  was  one  of  a  pair 
of  twin  boys  ;  the  other  died  in  infancy.  He  never 
married.  Then  comes  Philip  Augustus,  of  whom 
this  is  the  biography.  Mary  Jane  married  William 
T.  Nelson,  a  merchant  of  Lafayette,  Indiana,  after- 
ward a  farmer  of  Illinois.  Louisa  the  youngest  of 
the  family,  married  Charles  Humphrey,  a  physician 
of  Indiana. 

Mr  Marquam's  idea  was  that  Philip,  as  he  was 
growing  up  to  be  able  to  do  so,  should  stay  and  take 
care  of  the  farm,  which,  however,  was  the  property 
of  his  eldest  brother.  He  thought  over  the  matter 


622  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

a  great  deal,  and  finally  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
only  chance  for  him  was  to  educate  himself.  When 
it  is  considered  that  he  had  never  been  to  school  but 
three  months,  and  that  there  was  the  least  in  the 
world  in  his  surroundings  conducive  to  the  high 
purpose  which  he  conceived,  some  idea  may  be  had 
of  the  task  which  he  had  set  himself. 

We  cannot  realize  that  he  actually  appreciated 
what  he  proposed,  but  there  was  already  manifesting 
itself  in  him  a  power  of  will  and  endurance  before 
which  every  obstacle  must  fall  sooner  or  later. 
Already,  also,  did  he  give  evidence  of  that  faith  by 
which  the  divine  in  man's  nature  inspires  him  for 
emergency,  and  lifts  him  above  the  weights  of  doubt 
and  contingency.  He  obtained  some  elementary 
books,  and  studied  as  best  he  could  when  he  could 
make  time  during  the  day,  as  well  as  evenings  and 
the  most  of  Sundays.  The  road  was  rough  at  first, 
but  the  troubles  encountered  only  strengthened  his 
purpose.  Gradually  more  and  more  light  came  to 
him  ;  what  was  confused  yesterday  looked  at  to-day 
became  clear.  Constant  review  fixed  his  knowledge 
of  rudimentary  principles;  as  he  studied  he  learned 
how  to  study.  His  progress  was  slow  at  the  outset, 
but  the  loss  in  time  was  made  up  to  him  in  the 
thoroughness  with  which  he  was  compelled  to  pro- 
ceed, being  forced  at  every  step  to  make  sure  of  his 
ground  before  another  step  could  be  taken.  This 
self-discipline  sharpened  his  discernment,  expanded 
his  intelligence,  made  him  intellectually  independent 
and  self-reliant.  In  a  word,  the  information  he 
acquired  was  specific.  The  great  value  of  the  struggle 
was  that  he  learned  how  to  think ;  that  he  learned 
how  to  learn  ;  which  is  after  all  the  main  benefit,  and 
should  be  the  controlling  object  of  all  tuition.  It  is 
a  pleasant  picture  this  of  a  faithful,  earnest,  resolute 
boy,  thus  devoting  himself  to  a  laudable  ambition  in 
the  backwoods  of  Indiana,  snatching  every  moment 
for  study  that  he  could  honestly  appropriate. 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  623 

^  It  requires  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  see 
him  unconscious  of  the  flight  of  time  seated  under 
the  light  of  a  tallow  dip  or  stretched  before  the  glare 
of  a  pine-knot  fire  wrestling  with  problems  in  arithme- 
tic or  grammar,  struggling  hard  enough  but  with  every 
effort  enlarging  his  sphere  of  thought  and  increasing 
his  mental  strength,  while  in  manual  toil  on  the  farm 
developing  into  physical  manhood  with  proportionate 
growth.  Thus  unaided  and  alone,  he  acquired  a 
good  English  education.  During  this  course  of  self- 
tuition  he  neglected  no  opportunity  of  intercourse 
\vith  intelligent  people  to  acquire  information,  and 
conceiving  that  a  debating  society  would  be  beneficial 
he  succeeded,  with  the  assistance  of  an  intelligent 
millwright,  in  laying  the  foundation  for  this  organiza- 
tion. He  induced  the  young  men  of  the  neighbor- 
hood to  meet  at  the  schoolhouse  in  the  evenings,  and 
the  society  was  kept  up  for  several  years,  debates 
and  discussions  being  held  during  the  winter.  It 
proved  very  beneficial  to  a  number  of  its  members, 
who  by  this  exercise  acquired  confidence  in  them- 
selves, facility  to  speak  standing  on  their  feet,  alacrity 
in  thinking,  and  force  of  expression.  Several  of  the 
young  men  who  took  part  in  this  society  afterward 
became  eminent  in  the  various  professions.  As 
Philip  became  older,  and  could  command  more  time 
for  himself  by  reason  of  being  able  to  do  more  work, 
he  adopted  a  plan  which  is  original,  and  wrhich  seems 
to  me  commendable  both  for  sound  health  and 
advancement  in  learning,  that  is,  he  worked  and 
studied  alternate  hours  through  the  day,  ploughing 
or  chopping  one  hour  and  pouring  over  his  books  the 
next,  so  that  he  did  as  much  work  as  an  ordinary  hand, 
and  obtained  as  many  hours  of  study  as  the  ordinary 
student.  It  has  been  his  convict  ion  ever  since  that  the 
true  source  of  education  is  labor  combined  with 
study;  that,  to  say  nothing  of  what  is  actually  learned 
by  manual  labor  and  cannot  be  learned  otherwise, 
education  of  the  mind  is  promoted  by  healthy  con- 


624  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

temporaneous  development  of  the  body.  He  believes 
that  every  man  should  labor  with  his  hands  at  some 
time,  whether  or  not  he  may  probably  have  to  resort 
to  manual  toil.  There  are  good  reasons  why  he 
should  and  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not.  A 
man  who  has  been  taught  to  labor  properly  and 
intelligently  likes  it,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a 
man  who  is  fond  of  labor  who  is  not  a  good  citi- 
zen. A  large  proportion  of  the  convicts  in  our  peni- 
tentiaries are  convicts  because  of  their  aversion  to 
labor.  A  notable  illustration  of  this  occurred 
recently  in  the  state  prison  of  Oregon,  in  which  a 
prisoner  just  incarcerated  deliberately  cut  off  one  of 
his  hands  rather  than  work.  No  man  reared  to 
habits  of  labor  was  ever  demoralized  to  such  an 
extent  as  this. 

And  now  Philip,  having  performed  his  entire  duty 
in  helping  the  family  by  his  labor,  and  having,  as  we 
have  seen,  taught  himself  in  the  English  branches, 
was  in  his  twenty -first  year  confronted  by  another 
problem.  What  was  he  to  do  in  order  to  apply  his 
information  and  make  it  available  for  specific  use? 
While  still  working  on  the  home  farm,  doing  a  full 
task  daily  alloted  by  himself,  he  earned  time  to 
secure  and  cultivate  a  piece  of  ground  on  which  he 
raised  feed;  he  bought  some  stock,  and  in  this  way 
and  others  managed  to  get  enough  money  to  buy  a 
student's  law  library,  and  under  the  direction  of 
Godlove  S.  Orth,  an  able  lawyer  and  member  of 
congress,  afterward  minister  to  Russia,  who  had 
selected  the  books  for  him,  he  began  to  study  law. 
After  having  studied  and  worked  alternate  hours 
for  three  years,  he  took  a  course  of  lectures  in  the 
law  school  at  Bloomington,  Indiana.  [During  his 
reading  he  found  an  impediment  in  his  way.  He 
saw  that  without  a  knowledge  of  Latin  he  could  not 
thoroughly  understand  the  principles  of  jurisprudence 
as  expressed  in  that  language,  and  that  no  transla- 
tion, however  accurate  or  clear,  could  bring  out  the 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  C25 

distinctions  made  or  the  refinements  of  the  text  without 
more  or  less  loss  of  the  spirit  of  the  law.  Therefore, 
though  without  a  tutor,  he  took  up  the  study  of 
this  language,  and  educated  himself  in  it  step  by 
step  until  he  had  mastered  it  to  the  degree  required 
for  the  purpose  in  hand ;  starting  at  the  foundation 
with  the  old-fashioned  grammar,  presenting  the  struct- 
ure of  the  language  in  skeleton,  and  proceeding 
thereafter  to  the  application  of  the  rules  in  Historia 
Sacra.  This  seemed  to  him  a  less  difficult  feat  than 
the  acquisition  of  English,  but  if  really  so  it  was 
because  the  second  labor  was  made  easier  by  the 
first.  This  is  education  in  its  true  sense,  that  is  to 
say,  such  discipline  as  gives  the  student  the  use  of 
his  faculties  in  the  maximum  of  their  strength. 

From  Bloomington  he  went  to  Wabashtown, 
Indiana,  and  thence  to  California  in  1849.  I  ven- 
ture to  say  that  no  one  of  the  brave,  intelligent  argo- 
nauts of  that  period — and  as  a  rule  they  were  men 
of  a  very  superior  class — ever  entered  the  golden 
state  who  was  more  master  of  himself,  more  con- 
fident of  his  ability  to  do  whatever  his  hands  found 
to  do,  more  thoroughly  and  creditably  self-contained 
than  Philip  Augustus  Marquam.  Like  all  the  rest, 
he  was  after  the  golden  fleece.  In  two  or  three 
years  he  would  make  some  money  and  go  back  to 
the  "  states,'"7  so  little  at  that  time  was  known  regard- 
ing the  permanent  resources,  the  attractiveness  of 
climate,  and  almost  every  other  inducement  for  home- 
building  on  the  Pacific  coast,  of  which  gold  really 
was  but  an  incident.  With  three  other  young  men 
he  started  across  the  plains  in  the  spring  with  ox 
teams,  and  was  six  months  in  reaching  the  Sacra- 
mento valley.  Thence  they  went  to  the  Redding 
mines,  reaching  that  district  in  the  fall  of  the  year. 
They  underwent  the  ordinary  experience  of  placer 
miners  of  that  day,  but  in  addition  they  took  part 
in  several  Indian  fights.  Judge  Marquam,  as  a 
souvenir  of  the  most  serious  of  these  engagements, 


C.  B.- II.     40 


626  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

carries  the  scars  of  three  wounds  on  his  body.  The 
way  the  struggle  began  was  this:  On  Middle  creek 
the  remains  of  an  old  man  and  his  son  from  Ken- 
tucky who  had  been  murdered  by  the  Indians  were 
found  in  the  stream.  It  was  determined  to  pun- 
ish the  murderers.  About  the  first  of  January  1850 
a  company  of  about  thirty  men  went  out  against  the 
Indians  and  drove  them  into  the  mountains,  killing 
several,  and  losing  one  of  their  own  men.  In  the 
mean  time  gold  prospects  were  discovered  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river.  This  ground  had  been  held  by 
the  Indians.  Marquam  and  others  went  across  the 
river,  where  they  found  the  prospectors  expecting  an 
attack  at  any  moment,  and  keeping  a  strict  guard; 
but  the  party  now  being  increased  to  ten,  all  went 
to  sleep.  That  night  the  Indians  came  upon  them 
in  large  numbers,  armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  and 
making  the  night  terrible  with  their  war  whoops.  The 
miners  were  taken  completely  by  surprise,  their  arms 
were  out  of  order,  and  of  the  ten  seven  were  wounded 
but  none  killed.  The  whizzing  of  arrows  filled  the 
air.  Marquam  slept  with  his  arms  folded  across  his 
breast,  and  one  of  these  missiles  struck  him  in  the 
arm;  he  was  also  struck  in  the  knee,  from  which,  ten 
years  after,  he  himself  extracted  a  large  piece  of 
flint,  the  head  of  the  arrow  with  which  he  had  been 
wounded.  The  arrow  which  pierced  his  arm  could 
not  be  withdrawn  in  the  direction  from  which  it  had 
pierced  the  flesh,  and  in  order  to  releave  himself  of  it 
he  had  to  pull  it  its  entire  length  out  on  the  side 
opposite  the  point  at  which  it  had  entered.  The 
handful  of  miners  had  no  alternative  but  to  take  the 
desperate  chances  of  sallying  forth  and  attacking 
their  assailants,  wounded  as  they  were;  and  getting 
some  of  their  weapons  into  use,  they  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  driving  the  Indians  away.  Shortly  afterward 
great  excitement  prevailed,  five  hundred  men  came  to 
the  camp  about  equally  divided  in  their  ambition  to  dig 
for  gold  and  to  fight  Indians;  but  Marquam  had  seen 


PHILIP   A.  MAKQUAM.  627 

enough  of  this  sort  of  life,  and  in  the  spring  of  1850 
he  went  to  Fremont,  in  Yolo  county,  and  began  the 
practice  of  law;  but  he  had  hardly  more  than  opened 
his  office  when,  in  April,  he  was  elected  county 
judge.  There  was  no  little  difficulty  in  organizing 
the  state  and  county  governments,  in  which  work  he 
took  an  active  part.  Judge  Marquam's  term  of  office 
was  four  years,  but  recurring  to  his  original  plan  he 
thought  of  returning  east.  Before  doing  so,  how- 
ever, he  would  go  to  Oregon,  visit  his  brother 
Alfred  and  take  a  look  at  that  country.  He  arrived 
in  Portland  August  13,  1851.  The  impression  he 
received  of  this  section  was  very  agreeable;  he  was 
greatly  surprised  at  Astoria  by  the  fresh  green 
appearance  of  the  land,  nor  was  he  less  interested  in 
observing  the  smoke  from  Mount  St.  Helens,  which 
was  an  active  crater  at  that  time.  Proceeding  to  Oregon 
city  in  a  whale  boat  propelled  by  Indians  using  both 
oars  and  poles,  he  continued  his  journey  eighteen 
miles  further  by  stage  to  his  brother's  farm,  which 
was  about  half  way  between  Oregon  city  and  Salem. 
Alfred  had  left  Liberty,  Missouri,  in  1845,  and  after 
some  embarrassing  mishaps  and  reverses  in  the 
country  had  become  well  settled,  and  was  success- 
fully engaged  in  farming,  also,  during  winter,  work- 
ing at  his  trade  in  the  shop  on  his  place.  He  had 
taken  up  a  donation  claim  adjoining  a  similar  claim 
owned  by  his  wife's  father.  He  was  a  quiet,  honest, 
liberal  man,  who  never  became  rich  but  always  lived 
well.  Everybody  knew  him,  and  many  stopped  with 
him.  The  emigrants  always  found  in  him  a  friend, 
and  every  year  he  helped  them  more  or  less,  some- 
times giving  them  a  large  part  of  his  crop  for  assist- 
ing him  to  harvest  it.  He  died  in  1887,  loved  and 
respected  by  all  who  knew  him.  The  village  called 
Marquam  in  his  memory  is  situated  on  his  farm. 

Judge  Marquam  was  so  favorably  impressed  with 
Oregon  that  he  abandoned  the  idea  of  returning  to 
the  eastern  states.  After  careful  consideration  he 


628  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

became  convinced  that  Portland  would  become  a 
great  city,  and  that  the  best  thing  he  could  do  was  to 
make  that  place  his  home.  Returning  to  California, 
he  resigned  his  judgeship  of  Yolo  county,  and  set- 
tling up  what  business  he  had  there  returned  to 
Portland,  where  he  has  resided  ever  since.  He 
opened  a  law  office,  and  in  a  short  time  acquired 
considerable  practice  in  the  city  and  throughout 
the  state.  Washington  county  at  that  time  extended 
to  the  Willamette  river  and  included  Portland,  the 
county  seat  being  Hillsboro.  The  practice  in  the 
court  then  involved  every  branch  of  the  law,  and  it 
was  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  Judge  Marquam 
that  he  had  been  so  close  and  thorough  a  student 
in  the  general  principles  of  jurisprudence,  while  his 
experience  both  at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench 
proved  of  the  greatest  benefit.  He  was  earnest 
and  zealous  in  the  interests  of  his  clients,  and 
applied  himself  closely  to  business  ;  was  at  all 
times  a  faithful  student,  and  met  with  very  fair  suc- 
cess in  his  profession.  In  1853,  in  compliance  with 
the  wishes  of  his  party,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  a 
candidate  on  the  whig  ticket  for  a  seat  in  the  upper 
house  of  the  legislature,  or  territorial  council.  His 
party  was  greatly  in  the  minority,  and  still  the  judge 
was  defeated  by  only  sixteen  votes,  which  is  good 
evidence  of  the  appreciation  in  which  he  was  held. 
In  1882,  though  not  an  aspirant  for  office  and  not 
ambitious  for  political  preferment,  he  again  yielded 
to  the  solicitations  of  party  friends,  was  nominated 
on  the  republican  ticket,  and  elected  a  member  to  the 
lower  house  of  the  state  legislature.  In  all  legisla- 
tion that  was  undertaken  or  consummated  he  showed 
himself  familiar  with  the  wants  of  his  constituency, 
and  was  intelligent  and  industrious  in  attending  to 
them. 

Devoting  himself  continuously  and  loyally  to  the 
duties  of  his  profession,  he  established  himself  in  the 
confidence  of  the  public,  and  in  1862  was  elected  to 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  629 

the  office  of  county  judge  of  Multnomah  county. 
He  served  his  first  term  of  four  years  acceptably, 
and  was  reflected  and  served  the  second  term  of  the 
same  period  with  entire  satisfaction  to  the  people  and 
with  credit  to  himself,  which  statement  is  borne  out 
not  only  by  the  judgment  of  the  people  but  as  well, 
also,  by  an  impartial  analysis  of  his  judicial  career. 
During  the  eight  years  of  his  services  he  was  absent 
from  court  but  one  day,  and  this  was  owing  to  sick- 
ness in  his  family.  It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  the  bar  and  judiciary  of  the  Pacific  coast  in 
pioneer  days  numbered  many  whose  learning  and 
ability  would  have  been  creditable  to  the  older  com- 
munities of  the  east  and  Europe.  And  why  not? 
As  a  rule,  the  best  men  of  our  country  came  to  the 
western  shore  to  Americanize  it,  bringing  with  them 
a  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  application  of  law 
and  possessing  the  ability  to  treat  difficult  and  com- 
plex questions  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  clearest 
and  best  minds  that  our  soil  has  ever  produced. 
Among  these  early  jurists  Marquam  earned  a  worthy 
place,  not  only  standing  at  all  times  accredited  with 
ability  as  a  lawyer,  but  enjoying  a  reputation  for 
integrity  that  was  spotless.  The  course  of  justice 
while  he  was  on  the  bench  was  rather  smooth  and 
even,  not  marked  by  any  radical  decisions  or  judicial 
emergencies. 

Thus  while  he  was  loyal  to  his  profession,  there 
was  an  idea  in  his  mind  which,  from  its  inception, 
was  the  dominating  influence  of  his  life  arid  intended 
more  than  all  else  to  make  his  career  distinct.  His 
judgment,  as  before  intimated  was  that  Oregon  was 
sure  of  a  great  future.  And  faith  in  the  country 
took  the  form  in  his  mind  of  a  determination  to  build 
upon  real  estate.  What  was  his  motive  ?  Primarily 
self-aggrandizement,  provision  for  those  dependent 
upon  him  without  which  says  an  apostle  a  man  is 
worse  than  an  infidel  ;  the  very  effort  to  so  advance 
one's  self  is  of  itself  an  education,  stimulating  to  all 


630  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

the  manly  virtues.  If  he  had  been  wanting  in 
strength,  endurance,  patience,  economy,  or  adaptabil- 
ity, he  would  have  fallen  by  the  way.  To  live  in 
comformity  with  his  faith  in  the  face  of  hardships 
and  trials  required  not  only  wisdom  that  sees  the 
end,  but  a  rare  force  of  character  in  execution.  His 
first  step  was  to  take  up  a  donation  claim  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  acres  just  beyond  East  Portland  as 
early  as  1854.  From  that  time  whenever  he  had 
funds  in  excess  of  frugal  household  demands  he 
turned  them  into  well  selected  real  estate.  As  lands 
were  comparatively  cheap,  and  as  his  profession 
always  yielded  him  a  fair  income,  he  gradually 
became  the  owner  of  a  large  realty.  In  1858  he 
came  into  possession  of  what  is  now  called  Marquam's 
hill,  a  beautiful  mountain  tract  some  two  miles  south- 
west from  Portland,  which  elevated  about  950  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  Willamette  river,  commands  a 
very  wide  view  of  country  both  in  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington. On  forty  acres  of  this  tract  reserved  as  a 
farm  and  residence,  he  cultivates  fruits  and  vegeta- 
bles, has  his  horses  and  cows,  and  gathers  his  fuel. 
He  has  a  complete  system  of  water  works  for 
domestic  and  farm  use.  His  wife  being  of  strict  domes- 
tic habit  and  seconding  him  in  every  respect,  and  his 
children  being  brought  up  to  make  themselves  use- 
ful, he  was  enabled  to  go  forward  carrying  greater 
weight  than  would  otherwise  have  been  possible  in 
his  land  conquest.  He  was  strong  in  his  own  house. 
He  acquired  real  property  chiefly  in  and  about  the 
city  of  Portland  sufficient  in  value  to  ultimately  give 
him  decided  recognition  and  power  among  the  com- 
mercial leaders  of  the  city. 

Appreciation  of  property  was  slow.  It  seemed 
to  come  in  1878  and  1879,  but  the  boom  that  Vil- 
lard  brought  into  the  country  with  him  went  out 
with  him.  Then  a  greater  sense  of  heaviness  than 
ever  prevailed,  but  the  judge  had  the  faculty  to 
labor  and  to  wait.  Some  persons  sold  their  property 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  631 

for  whatever  they  could  get  for  it;  others  declined  to 
pay  taxes  on  their  real  estate,  and  let  it  go  at  Sheriff's 
sale.  His  friends  said  to  him:  "You  had  better 
let  go.  You  will  only  ruin  yourself  by  trying  to 
hold  on."  Successful  citizens  in  the  community 
who  I  may  say  have  had  riches  thrust  upon  them 
through  the  increased  value  of  real  estate  which 
they  could  not  avoid  taking  as  security  for  debt, 
admonished  him  to  sell.  Says  a  contemporary  of 
Judge  Marquam,  "he  is  peculiar  in  his  business 
methods.  He  always  carries  big  loans.  It  has 
seemed  to  me  and  everybody  else  that  he  must  go 
under.  The  amount  of  interest  he  paid  out  would 
be  a  fortune  itself,  but  he  was  always  hopeful,  good 
natured  and  cool.  He  either  met  promptly  or  made 
satisfactory  arrangements  to  meet  every  obligation." 
He  seems  to  be  the  only  citizen  of  Portland  who 
did  not  at  some  period  feel  that  he  had  made  a  mis- 
take, and  would  do  better  to  go  somewhere  else. 
His  loyalty  to  the  soil  distinguishes  him.  Had  all 
others  found  the  opportunity,  which  many  sought, 
and  gone  away,  I  believe  he  would  have  remained 
true  to  his  convictions,  and  so  have  become  a 
nucleus  about  whom  new  comers  would  rally  and 
be  encouraged.  It  is  an  exhilaration  to  contemplate 
one  man  ever  faithful  in  the  midst  of  skeptics,  to 
see  him  growing  stronger  from  day  to  day  in  that 
policy  on  account  of  which  his  neighbors  pity  him. 
Doubtless  many  felt  sympathy  with  him,  for  he  was 
a  man  whom'  everybody  liked. 

The  crowd  appreciates  only  its  own  ideas;  a  thought 
which  is  not  common  it  cannot  grasp.  Judge  Mar- 
quam may  have  been  looked  upon  as  slow,  but  the 
winner  is  not  known  until  the  end  of  the  race.  If  he 
seemed  wanting  in  enterprise  it  was  because  he  was 
struggling  to  acquire  the  means  to  take  his  place  as 
a  chief  among  builders.  It  is  the  fate  of  original 
men  to  be  misunderstood,  but  of  what  consequence  is 
this?  Their  character  is  expressed  in  the  great 


632  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

object  which  they  hold  in  view  and  work  towards. 
Men  of  their  own  caliber  may  understand  them; 
smaller  men  cannot.  Judge  Marquam  was  in 
advance  of  all  who  were  not  in  sympathy  with 
his  idea  regarding  the  future  of  his  adopted  home, 
for  their  proudest  boast  was  that  they  were  up  to 
the  times.  His  wisdom  began  however  where  theirs 
ended,  for  he  laid  his  foundation  in  the  future. 

Surely  his  survival  is  an  instance  of  the  fittest, 
for  he  lived  years  of  self-denial,  not  only  to  do  his 
duty  to  himself  and  those  dependent  upon  him,  but 
to  arrive  at  a  point  beyond  which  his  history  would 
be  so  plain  that  the  very  dullest  man  in  the  com- 
munity could  look  at  it  and  understand  it.  In  the 
sixty- sixth  year  of  his  age  he  began  to  give  material 
form  to  those  things  which  he  had  already  created 
in  his  mind,  and  which  awaited  only  his  bidding  to 
stand  forth.  It  was  the  concensus  of  the  people  that 
the  block  opposite  the  great  hotel,  The  Portland, 
was  the  most  eligible  site  for  an  opera  house  in  size 
and  appointments  conforming  with  the  dignity  of  the 
metropolis.  This  lot,  originally  bought  by  Judge 
Marquam  for  five  hundred  dollars,  but  valued  in 
1890  at  $250,000,  was  retained  by  him.  There  had 
been  much  talk  of  forming  a  company  to  erect  the 
proposed  building,  but  he  preferred  to  assume  the 
entire  expense  and  responsibility  personally,  not 
that  the  investment  was  as  good  as  he  could  have 
made  but  rather  as  a  concession  to  the  general  wish 
of  the  community  in  which  he  had  grown  up  and 
been  successful.  This  is  emphasized  by  the  fact  that 
he  is  not  in  any  sense  a  theatre  man.  Under  date 
of  October  26,  1889  the  West  Shore  made  the  follow- 
ing statement,  which  I  have  found  to  be  correct: 
"  The  Marquam,  so  named  in  honor  of  Judge  P.  A. 
Marquam,  one  of  Portland's  oldest  and  most  respected 
citizens,  will  eclipse  all  other  such  buildings  in  the 
northwest.  It  yields  the  palm  to  only  one  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  the  grand  opera  house  in  San  Fran- 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  633 

cisco,  and  that  only  to  a  small  degree  as  regards 
size.  The  entire  building  was  planned  by  an  expe- 
rienced theatrical  architect.  It  is  a  combined  office- 
building  and  theatre,  the  latter  being  entered  through 
the  former,  though  entirely  cut  off  from  it  by  a  solid 
fire-proof  brick  wall  extending  up  through  the  roof. 
The  office  building  faces  on  Morrison  street  and 
extends  from  Sixth  to  Seventh,  a  distance  of  200 
feet,  with  a  depth  of  60  feet.  It  is  eight  stories 
high  in  the  main  portion,  and  ten  in  the  central 
tower  which,  elevated  160  feet,  commands  a  mag- 
nificent view  of  the  surrounding  country.  The 
tower  is  reached  by  one  of  two  passenger  elevators, 
the  other  running  to  the  eighth  floor.  The  build- 
ing is  more  substantial  than  any  other  west  of  Chi- 
cago. Its  walls  are  of  pressed  brick  with  terra  cotta 
trimmings,  the  first  story  and  portions  of  the  second 
being  of  grey  sandstone,  rock-faced  and  with  points 
attractively  carved.  It  is  built  absolutely  fire- 
proof, the  floors  being  constructed  of  steel  beams 
and  hollow  tile  arches.  All  the  offices  are  heated 
by  steam,  and  lighted  by  electricity  from  a  plant 
having  a  capacity  of  1,600  incandescent  lights  of 
sixteen  candle  power  each. 

The  theatre,  which  is  70  by  130  feet,  and  five 
stories  high,  is  handsomely  finished  on  the  inside  in 
red  oak,  natural  color,  with  imported  tile  flooring,  and 
the  side  walls  and  ceiling  frescoed  in  oil  colors  and 
bronze.  The  doors  leading  to  the  foyer,  the  foyer 
itself,  and  the  Entire  auditorium  show  the  latest  ideas 
in  modern  theatrical  architecture.  The  proscenium 
boxes  are  of  the  latest  design,  and  while  not  obstruct- 
ing the  view  from  any  portion  of  the  house  command 
the  entire  stage.  The  seating  capacity  of  the  theatre 
is  1,600,  besides  ample  standing  room. 

Special  attention  has  been  given  to  the  safety  as 
well  as  the  comfort  of  the  audience.  All  the  aisles 
are  broad  and  lead  to  exits,  of  which  there  are  four- 
teen, with  a  total  width  of  70  feet,  so  that  the  house 


634  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

may  be  emptied  in  two  minutes.  In  addition  to  this 
a  solid  brick  wall  runs  between  the  auditorium  and 
the  other  portion  of  the  theatre,  and  a  fire-proof 
steel  wire  or  asbestos  drop  with  steel  cables  and 
operated  automatically  close  the  front  of  the  stage  in 
case  of  fire.  The  appointments  of  the  theatre  are 
most  ample  and  complete.  The  entire  house  is  illumi- 
nated by  incandescent  electric  lights.  In  fact  from 
one  end  to  the  other  the  theatre  is  complete,  capa- 
cious, and  elegant  in  every  detail.  The  building  is  a 
lasting  monument  to  the  enterprise  and  public  spirit 
of  its  projector  and  owner,  to  whom  Portland  is 
indebted  for  one  of  the  finest  architectural  produc- 
tions in  America." 

But,  as  intimated,  this  monument  to  Judge  Mar- 
quam's  real  sentiment,  which  is  liberal  and  progressive, 
is  only  the  beginning  of  what  he  proposes  to  do,  and 
unless  all  signs  fail  he  will  not  only  be  among  the 
wealthiest  men  on  the  north  Pacific  coast,  in  a  com- 
paratively few  years,  but  will  apply  that  wealth 
where  it  will  be  of  the  highest  material  advantage  to 
the  community.  Marquam  hill  is  soon  to  be  trans- 
formed into  a  dwelling  place  such  as  will  correspond 
with  the  judge's  idea  of  what  is  substantial  and 
elegant,  and  in  accord  with  his  family's  proper  place 
in  the  society  of  Portland. 

Judge  Marquam  was  married  near  Portland,  May 
8,  1853,  to  Miss  Emma  Kern,  whose  natal  day  was 
February  22,  1836.  Her  family  were  from  Peoria, 
Illinois.  Her  father,  with  whom  she  came  to  Oregon, 
was  an  emigrant  of  1851.  He  is  still  farming  in 
Multnomah  county.  Mrs  Marquam  has  had  a  great 
part  in  her  husband's  prosperity.  She  is  a  woman  of 
excellent  judgment,  great  strength  of  character,  well 
educated  in  English  and  accomplished  in  many 
respects.  She  has  always  been  sympathetic,  cour- 
ageous, and  loyal,  indeed  a  help-meet  in  every  partic- 
ular. Judge  and  Mrs  Marquam  have  a  most  interesting 
family  of  eleven  children,  seven  daughters  arid  four 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  635 

sons,  all  native  Oregonians.  Grouped  about  their 
father  and  mother,  all  bright,  healthy,  fine  looking, 
they  form  a  picture  of  which  Oregon  may  fairly  be 
proud.  It  is  really  beautiful  to  see  father  and  mother, 
and  so  many  children  so  well  grown,  the  family  circle 
unbroken,  with  all  the  children  born  to  them  so 
happily  developed  in  mind  and  body.  This  country 
can  produce  few  such  family  pictures.  The  roll  call 
is  as  follows  :  Mary  Emma,  born  March  27,  1854  ; 
Philip  Augustus,  born  September  9,  1855;  Wil- 
liam Winchester,  born  November  24,  1857;  Char- 
lotte Cornelia,  born  November  24,  1859;  Jessie  Louisa, 
born  July  30,  1861;  U.  S.  Grant,  born  July  3,  1863  ; 
Sarah  Sherman,  born  February  8,  1865  ;  Jana  High- 
ton,  born  April  28,  1867;  Katie  Lincoln,  born  March 
27,  1869;  Willamette,  born  April  7,  1871;  Thomas 
Alfred,  born  January  29,  1874.  These  children,  the 
youngest  of  whom  is  in  is  sixteenth  year,  have  been 
brought  up  in  the  way  they  should  go.  They  have 
enjoyed  every  facility  of  education  that  the  city  of 
Portland  afforded.  They  are  all  well  equipped  for 
respectable  and  useful  manhood  and  womanhood. 
This  is  the  least  that  I  can  say  in  regard  to  them, 
which  nevertheless  is  much. 

Judge  Marquam's  life  has  been  a  dual  one,  pro- 
fessional and  commercial ;  the  former  I  may  liken 
to  the  basis  and  the  latter  to  the  superstructure 
of  his  career.  In  each  phase  of  his  experience  he 
was  unmistakably  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune. 
He  made  himself  a  lawyer  without  help.  The  same 
wisdom  which  enabled  him  to  see  the  possibilities  for 
him  in  jurisprudence  and  the  same  tenacity  of  purpose 
by  which  he  surmounted  all  the  difficulties  in  his 
way  were  the  identical  discernment  and  energy  redi- 
rected to  the  acquisition  and  use  of  realty.  His 
individuality  as  a  youth  was  well  defined,  and  even 
more  clearly  when  he  stood  so  often  absolutely 
alone  among  his  neighbors  in  his  over-confident  and 
faithful  anticipations  for  the  city  and  state.  This  is 


636  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

to  me  a  most  interesting  view  of  the  man,  for  I  see 
him  independent,  without  leanings,  self-supporting, 
cheerful,  and  bold,  hewing  to  the  line  that  he  had 
marked  out  for  himself  regardless  of  the  advice  and 
criticisms,  the  sneers  and  the  laughter  of  friends  and 
acquaintances.  They  did  not  understand  him  nor 
could  they  understand  him.  He  had  a  reason  for 
the  faith  that  was  within  him  which  he  could  not 
explain  to  them  to  their  satisfaction,  even  if  he  tried; 
for  while  he  never  doubted  that  he  would  come  out 
victorious,  they  looked  to  him  as  over-confident  and 
visionary  for  thinking  so.  And  if  they  failed  to 
comprehend  the  commercial  idea  upon  which  he 
acted,  they  fell  as  far  short  of  understanding  him 
otherwise. 

Of  his  public  spirit  and  broad  views  of  enterprise, 
they  knew  so  little  that  they  were  surprised,  and 
some  of  them  possibly  piqued  to  find  themselves  so 
mistaken  in  him,  seeing  him  outstrip  them  all  in  his 
offering  of  a  veritable  temple  to  dramatic  culture,  and 
creating  for  them  a  model  of  excellence  in  the  con- 
struction of  business  blocks.  They  failed  to  judge 
him  rightly  because  they  looked  at  him  less  with  his 
eyes  than  with  their  own.  No  character,  we  may 
affirm,  was  ever  thus  rightly  understood.  While 
Judge  Marquam's  life  has  been  one  of  intellectual 
activity,  his  walk  and  conversation  has  always  been 
that  of  the  well-balanced,  common  sense  man  of 
affairs.  Though  looking  well  into  the  future  he  is 
also  a  diligent  student  of  the  present,  believing  that 
the  capabilities  of  the  former  may  sometimes  be 
brought  within  the  scope  of  the  latter.  For  instance, 
foreseeing  an  opportunity  to  expedite  development  in 
East  Portland  by  reduced  cost  of  transportation,  he 
was  instrumental  in  bringing  about  a  reduction  from 

O         O 

twelve  and  a  half  to  five  cents  in  the  charge  for 
carrying  passengers  across  on  the  ferry-boats.  The 
proprietors  of  the  ferry  were  very  indignant  at  first, 
and  saw  only  ruin  staring  them  in  the  face.  A  year 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  637 

afterward  they  acknowledged  cheerfully  that  owing 
to  an  increase  of  travel  induced  by  the  lower  rate 
their  ferry  was  more  profitable  then  than  before,  and 
a  town  rapidly  grew  up  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river. 

During  his  first  term  as  judge  he  agitated  the 
matter  of  purchasing  the  present  poor  farm  west  of 
Portland,  and  succeeded  in  having  it  secured  for  the 
county,*200  acres  for  $4,000.  The  market  value  of 
the  same  property  is  now  $200,000. 

We  have  seen  in  him  unusual  clearness  of 
judgment;  we  have  also  seen  in  him  a  power  of  will 
to  execute  his  convictions.  His  faculty  to  plan 
seemed  equal  with  his  strength  to  perform,  his  acts 
therefore  being  the  expressions  of  his  thoughts;  for 
having  no  adviser,  as  a  rule  he  judged  for  himself. 
With  respect  for  the  opinions  of  others,  he  preferred 
himself  to  follow  lines  of  facts  to  their  logical  con- 
clusions. He  was  not  fond  of  having  partners.  Yet 
he  is  not  conceited  or  pretentious;  nor  is  he  in  any  way 
out  of  sympathy  with  his  fellow  beings.  He  was 
never  a  politician.  His  evenings  he  spent  at  home 
with  his  family,  but  he  was  not  unfamiliar  with  the 
politics  of  the  state.  On  all  great  questions  agitating 
the  nation,  his  feelings  were  radical  and  pronounced. 
Passing  by  the  old  issues  which  have  been  determined, 
the  most  serious  demand  upon  our  government  at 
this  time  is  that  the  vote  of  every  man  who  has  the 
right  to  vote  be  counted.  To  his  mind  this  is  the 
great  vital  question  of  the  present,  affecting  not  only 
party  vote  but  involving  the  fundimental  principles 
of  our  republic.  This  is  a  question  of  disease  in  our 
internal  economy  which  must  be  removed  by  the 
roots.  We  must  be  prepared  also  to  defend  ourselves 
against  foreign  enemies  by  fortifying  our  coast,  and 
in  time  of  peace  to  prepare  for  war. 

Our  immigration  laws  should  be  greatly  modified. 
Years  ago  we  were  glad  to  accept  because  we 
could  assimilate  almost  any  foreigner,  and  then  too, 


638  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

as  a  rule,  immigrants  were  of  a  better  class.  Now 
the  incomers  are  both  inferior  and  numerous,  and 
our  assimilating  capacity  has  diminished.  Immi- 
grants into  our  country  should  be  closely  examined, 
and  excluded  if  not  found  fit  to  be  citizens  among 
us.  Our  naturalization  laws  should  be  framed  upon 
the  same  idea.  Certain  foreigners,  such  as  anar- 
chists, should  not  be  given  the  elective  franchise 
under  any  circumstances.  There  should  also  be 
educational  qualifications,  and  a  long  probation 
period  during  which  foreigners  should  be  required  to 
familiarize  themselves  with  our  institutions.  We 
cannot  raise  the  standard  of  eligibility  to  citizenship 
in  this  country  too  high. 

His  views  as  thus  intimated  are  as  comprehensive 
as  they  are  clear.  He  is  not  a  social  man  in  the 
gregarious  sense  of  that  word,  inclining  neither  to 
fraternal  nor  religious  organizations.  He  never  was 
a  member  of  any  secret  society,  nor  saw  any  benefit 
to  himself  in  such  membership.  He  is  not  an 
atheist;  there  is  in  his  mind  no  doubt  of  the  exist- 
ence of  an  intelligent  creator.  To  appreciate  the 
great  good  the  church  has  done  one  has  but  to  open 
one's  eyes;  but  when  one  finds  the  different  denomi- 
nations each  claiming  to  be  the  true  source  of  reli- 
gion one  finds  no  choice  among  them.  Also  while 
religion  has  done  good  it  has  certainly  been  the 
means  of  immense  harm,  the  cause  of  great  arid 
bloody  wars.  In  matters  of  belief  or  conscience  he 
is  careful  not  to  interfere  with  others,  and  his  large 
family  is  divided  in  membership  among  the  pro- 
testant  churches.  Judge  Marquam,  as  a  force  in 
the  building  of  empire  on  the  Pacific  shore,  can- 
not be  understood  unless  he  be  known  as  a  man  enter- 
taining a  clear  idea  of  justice  and  endeavoring  to 
render  to  every  person  his  rights.  In  rearing  his 
children  his  first  object  was  to  have  them  honorable, 
and  after  that  energetic  and  self-sustaining.  There 
are  men  who  take  advantage  of  others  in  order  to 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  639 

build  themselves  up,  and  there  are  still  more  who 
regard  a  technicality  as  ample  excuse  for  the  viola- 
tion of  a  contract.  Not  so  with  Marquam.  During 
the  depreciation  of  greenbacks  he  met  his  obliga- 
tions with  coin.  In  the  purchase  of  a  piece  of 
real  estate,  he  assumed  the  payment  of  a  note  for 
$1,500  secured  by  a  mortgage  on  the  property.  This 
was  long  before  the  advent  of  greenbacks  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  Afterward  the  owner  of  this  note 
pledged  it  to  a  broker  for  its  face  in  greenbacks,  less 
interest.  The  note  was  left  at  a  bank  for  collection. 
Judge  Marquam  began  to  pay  it  off  in  gold,  upon 
the  discovery  of  which  by  the  owner,  he  was  noti- 
fied to  stop  payments,  and  he  was  not  allowed  to 
pay  again  for  several  months,  while  the  owner  and 
broker  litigated  the  matter  to  determine  between 
themselves  which  was  entitled  to  the  difference 
between  the  gold  value  and  the  greenback  value  of 
the  note,  which,  at  that  date,  was  very  large.  As 
there  was  nothing  to  hinder  Judge  Marquam  from 
paying  in  greenbacks,  both  of  these  parties  had 
assumed  that  he  would  avail  himself  of  the  privi- 
lege; but  he  said  that  while  he  had  the  unquestioned 
legal  right  to  pay  in  legal  tender,  he  did  not  feel 
justified  in  doing  so,  for  when  the  note  was  given 
gold  was  exclusively  the  currency  of  this  section  of 
the  country,  and  that  the  obligation,  though  not 
expressed  was  evidently  implied,  that  it  should  be 
paid  in  gold. 

Thus  was  he  conscientious  when  it  cost  something 
to  be  so;  but  such  was  his  sense  of  honor  that  no 
consideration  of  profit  could  induce  him  to  take  an 
advantage  afforded  by  the  law;  as  though  his  life 
were  modeled  upon  these  lines: 

This  above  all— to  thine  own  self  be  true  ; 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  cans't  not  then  be  false  to  any  man. 

Says  Samuel  Smiles:  "Simple  honesty  of  pur- 
pose in  a  man  goes  a  long  way  in  life  if  founded  on  a 


640  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

just  estimate  of  himself,  and  a  steady  obedience  to 
the  rule  he  knows  and  feels  to  be  right.  It  forms 
the  mainspring  of  vigorous  action."  "No  man," 
once  said  Sir  Benjamin  Rudyard,  "is  bound  to  be 
rich  or  great ;  no,  nor  to  be  wise ;  but  every  man  is 
bound  to  be  honest." 

It  is  a  noticeably  pleasant  aspect  of  Judge  Mar- 
quam's  disposition  that  while  he  is  decided  in  his 
ideas  of  right  and  wrong,  and  punctillious  in  the 
discharge  of  what  seems  to  him  to  be  duty,  he  has 
great  charity  for  those  who  differ  from  him,  and  is 
considerate  of  their  opinion.  He  does  not  assume 
to  make  a  law  of  conduct  for  others,  but  is  uncom- 
promising to  the  point  of  stubbornness  in  shaping 
his  own  conduct  and  controlling  his  affairs  accord- 
ing to  his  own  ideal.  In  reading  history  his  sym- 
pathies are  with  the  oppressed,  yet-  withal  having 
the  highest  regard  for  law  and  established  institu- 
tions. He  was  not  an  abolitionist,  but  he  felt  that 
slavery  was  wrong.  He  would  never  have  favored 
a  war  to  attack  an  institution  recognized  as  this  was 
in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  still  he 
thinks  the  greatest  act  of  Mr  Lincoln's  life,  show- 
ing more  of  shrewdness  and  statesmanship  than  any 
other,  was  his  ability  to  carry  the  country  along 
and  refuse  to  be  swayed  by  the  abolitionists  until 
the  country  was  prepared  for  emancipation.  That 
is  to  say,  his  view  of  slavery  and  abolition  seems  to 
me  identical  with  that  entertained  by  Lincoln  him- 
self. 

While  naturally  a  friend  of  those  who  labor  with 
their  hands — for  in  no  man's  mind  is  toil  associated 
with  greater  dignity  than  in  his, — -he  does  not  look 
with  any  tolerance  upon  the  assumption  that  work- 
ing men  are  entitled  to  superior  privileges.  He  says : 
"While  I  believe  in  the  rights  of  laboring  men  to 
associate  for  their  own  protection,  and  the  maintenance 
of  proper  relations  to  capital,  I  deem  their  course  in 
preventing  other  men  from  laboring,  and  in  compelling 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM,  641 

strikes,  as  arbitrary  and  vicious,  and  should  be  hind- 
ered by  law.  In  other  words  that  while  you  have 
the  right  to  say  you  will  not  work  for  a  certain  sum 
of  money,  you  have  no  right  to  say  I  shall  not." 

On  the  other  hand,  he  is  not  a  man  to  be  coerced 
or  intimidated  into  compliance  with  the  demands  of 
aggregated  capital.  He  may  be  lead  but  there  is  too 
much  Americanism  in  him  to  submit  to  be  driven. 
For  instance,  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  bricks,  at 
the  time  when  he  was  about  to  begin  the  construction 
of  several  large  buildings  of  this  material,  had  fallen 
altogether  under  the  control  of  a  trust.  Other  parties 
dared  not  enter  the  field  against  the  monopoly,  which 
discouraged  competition  and  kept  up  the  price  of 
bricks.  The  judge,  however,  established  a  brick- 
yard on  his  own  land,  and  put  in  a  plant  for  both 
common  and  pressed  brick  which  he  operated  in  1889 
and  T.890  with  good  results  making  a  fine  grade  of 
the  latter  for  his  own  use.  This  proved  not  only 
wise  and  economical  for  himself,  but  of  great  value 
to  the  public,  for  others  following  in  his  lead,  who 
had  not  the  courage  of  themselves  to  take  the  initia- 
tive, bricks  became  abundant,  the  price  was  reduced 
from  $12  to  $7  per  thousand,  and  they  were  thus 
placed  within  the  reach  of  all. 

Judge  Marquam  has  been  a  consistent  and  earnest 
republican  in  politics,  yet  to  my  mind  more  American 
than  partisan,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  previous 
statement  of  his  views,  which  indicate  a  reverence 
for  law,  independence  in  thinking,  and  loyalty  to  the 
union. 

Tell  me  whom  you  admire,  says  a  distinguished 
author,  and  I  will  tell  you  who  you  are, — so  much 
are  we  in  sympathy  with  and  influenced  by  the  lives 
of  those  whom  we  most  esteem.  Marquam  looks 
upon  Lincoln  as  the  grandest  American  of  all;  while 
in  his  habit  of  thought  and  action  one  can  trace  per- 
ceptibly the  effect  upon  his  mind  of  studying  the  lives 
of  other  great  examplars.  Is  it  not  palpably  true 

C.  B.— II.     41 


642  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

that  there  are  things  brought  out  in  this  study  of  the 
life  of  Philip  Augustus  Marquam,  which  are  cal- 
culated to  encourage,  strengthen,  and  inspire  others 
whose  only  inheritance  and  estate  is  self  and  time,  an 
heirloom,  however,  wide  and  fair  ? 

The  authentic  picture  of  any  one's  life  and  expe- 
rience possesses  an  interest  greatly  beyond  that 
which  is  fictitious,  for  it  has  the  charm  of  reality; 
every  person  may  learn  something  from  the  recorded 
life  of  another,  and  comparatively  trivial  deeds  and 
sayings  are  invested  with  interest  as  the  outcome  of 
the  lives  of  such  beings  as  we  ourselves.  The  records 
of  such  a  life  as  that  before  us  influence  our  hearts, 
inspire  us  with  hope  and  fortifies  us  in  the  whole- 
some resolve  to  struggle  manfully  and  honorably  as 
he  has  done,  in  order  that  we  may  have  a  reward, 
commensurate  with  our  talents  and  their  use.  It  is 
the  life  of  a  plain,  direct,  unpretentious,  and  practical 
man, whose  features  in  the  accompanying  portrait  sup- 
plement and  confirm  the  picture  of  him  in  words  con- 
scientiously presented  herewith,  a  man,  the  elements 
of  whose  character  were  brought  into  action  by 
determinate  will  and  influenced  by  high  purpose,  he 
entered  upon  and  courageously  persevered  in  the 
path  of  duty  at  whatever  cost  of  worldly  interest ; 
and  so  he  may  be  said  to  have  approached  the  sum- 
mit of  his  being.  This  exhibits  character  in  its  most 
intrepid  form,  and  is  the  highest  ideal  of  manliness. 
The  acts  of  such  a  personage  become  repeated  in  the 
life  and  action  of  others.  His  very  words  live  and 
become  actions. 

In  contemplating  such  an  experience  as  his,  "  it 
would  be  nearer  the  mark  to  say  that  man  is  the 
architect  of  circumstances  than  that  he  is  the  creature 
of  circumstance.  It  is  character  which  builds  an 
existence  out  of  circumstance.  From  the  same  mate- 
rials one  man  builds  palaces,  another  hovels ;  one 
ware-houses,  another  villas.  Bricks  and  mortar  are 
mortar  and  bricks  unless  the  architect  can  make 


PHILIP  A.  MARQUAM.  643 

them  something  else.  Thus  it  is  that  in  the  same 
family,  in  the  same  circumstances,  one  man  rears 
a  stately  edifice,  while  his  brother,  vacillating  and 
incompetent,  lives  forever  amid  ruins.  The  block 
of  granite  which  was  an  obstacle  on  the  path  of 
the  weak  becomes  a  stepping  stone  on  pathway  of 
the  strong." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

LIFE  OF  VAN  B.    BE  LASHMUTT. 

PIONEER  VERSATILITY  IN  ENTERPRISE — THE  UNION  CAUSE  IN  UTAH  — 
VARIED  FACTORSHIP— As  A  BUILDER— QUICK  RISE  IN  FINANCIAL  IMPOR- 
TANCE— ACTIVE  AND  USEFUL  CITIZENSHIP. 

THE  versatility  displayed  by  the  earlier  settlers  of 
Oregon  has  never  perhaps  been  more  fully  exemplified 
than  in  the  career  of  Van  B.  De  Lashmutt,  who  has 
successfully  filled  the  roles  of  journalist,  merchant, 
real  estate  agent,  capitalist,  banker,  and  miner,  besides 
being  identified  with  various  corporations  as  chief 
promoter  and  leading  officer.  Born  in  Burlington, 
Iowa,  July  27,  1842,  he  passed  the  first  years  of  his 
boyhood  on  a  farm  some  two  miles  distant  from  that 
city,  near  which  since  1836  his  parents  had  resided. 

Coming  to  Oregon  in  1852,  when  fifteen  years  of 
age  he  entered  the  printing-office  of  the  Salem  States- 
man, of  which  Asahel  Bush  was  editor.  Here  he 
remained  for  four  years,  having  the  advantage  of  his 
employer's  advice  and  experience,  and  being  treated 
as  a  member  of  his  family.  Though  well  satisfied 
with  his  position  and  prospects  at  Salem,  at  the  out- 
break of  the  civil  war  he  did  not  hesitate  to  offer 
his  services  in  the  cause  of  the  cduntry,  and  enlisted 
in  company  G,  3d  infantry,  California  volunteers, 
which  afterward  formed  a  portion  of  General  Connor's 
command.  Much  to  the  chagrin  of  himself  and  his 

(644) 


VAN  B.  DE  LASHMUTT.  645 

companions,  and  contrary  to  their  solicitation  to  be 
sent  to  the  scene  of  active  hostilities,  they  were  held 
in  Utah  until  the  close  of  the  war,  restraining  the 
disloyal  and  putting  down  Indian  outbreaks — a  valu- 
able service,  but  not  of  the  kind  sought. 

In  December  1864,  having  been  mustered  out  of 
the  service,  he  removed  to  Washoe,  Nevada,  where 
he  purchased  and  edited  the  Times,  meeting  with  fair 
success,  though  the  field  was  too  limited  for  a  man  of 
his  enterprise  and  ability.  He  returned  in  the  follow- 
ing winter  to  Oregon,  where  he  was  employed  in  the 
office  of  the  Portland  Oregonmn.  But  journalism,  as 
he  soon  discovered,  holds  forth  but  slight  attractions 
even  to  the  most  gifted  writer,  for  the  talent,  zeal,  and 
application  which  win  success  in  this  profession  will 
not  fail,  if  applied  to  some  less  arduous  and  more 
lucrative  calling,  to  insure  at  least  a  sufficiency  of  this 
world's  goods. 

In  one  respect  at  least  Mr  De  Lashmutt  differed 
from  the  modern  journalist,  he  knew  how  to  take  care 
of  his  earnings;  and  in  1868,  when  he  had  accumu- 
lated a  moderate  sum,  he  established  himself  in  Port- 
land, first  in  the  grocery  business,  then  in  the  real 
estate,  and  afterward  in  brokerage.  His  success  was 
phenomenal,  and  he  rose  rapidly  to  a  commanding 
position  among  the  business  men  of  the  city.  His 
investments  in  real  estate,  made  in  anticipation  of 
railroad  developments,  were  judicious,  and  in  conse- 
quence he  possesses  very  valuable  holdings. 

In  connection  with  W.  W.  Thayer,  Richard  Wil- 
liams, H.  W.  Scott,  E.  D.  Shattuck,  Charles  H.  Dodd 
and  others,  in  September  1882  he  incorporated  the 
Metropolitan  Savings  bank,  which  did  a  general  bank- 
ing business  It  was  remarkably  successful,  and  in 
June  1886  was  converted  into  the  Oregon  National 
bank,  Mr  De  Lashmutt  president.  A  characteristic 
of  Portland  is  the  stability  of  its  institutions.  This 
may  be  said  particularly  of  its  banks,  among  which 
the  Oregon  National  stands  well.  He  was  made  presi- 


646  GOVERNMENT-  OREGON. 

dent  of  the  Eilensburg  National  bank,  the  Arlington 
National  bank,  Oregon,  and  the  Miners'  Exchange 
bank  at  Wardner,  Idaho,  and  was  connected  with 
the  Northwestern  Loan  and  Trust  company,  Portland. 
It  is  but  fair  to  credit  him  with  his  share  in  the 
financial  affairs  of  the  northwest,  and  to  note  that 
his  ability  in  finance  is  recognized  by  the  oldest  and 
brightest  men  among  his  competitors  in  the  field. 

As  early  as  1875  Mr  De  Lashmutt  began  to  interest 
himself  in  blood  horses,  and  from  that  time  was  occu- 
pied more  and  more  in  the  importation  and  breeding 
of  thoroughbred  and  trotting  stock.  He  has  owned 
some  notable  horses  of  the  former  kind,  but  proposes 
to  confine  himself  to  the  latter.  Fifteen  miles  from 
Portland  on  the  West  Side  railroad  he  has  a  breeding- 
farm  on  which  he  has  fifty  brood-mares,  a  number  of 
them  having  very  low  records.  This  work  is  in  accord 
wTith  his  taste,  and  contributes  in  a  great  measure  to 
the  actual  wealth  of  the  community.  Some  first-class 
horses  were  brought  into  Oregon  by  the  early  immi- 
grants, and  others  now  and  then  later,  but  the  breed 
throughout  the  state  generally  deteriorated.  In  order 
to  form  any  idea  of  the  value  of  the  services  of  Mr  De 
Lashmutt  and  one  or  two  others  who  have  improved 
the  breed  of  horses  in  Oregon,  the  more  recent  and 
magnificent  products  of  their  breeding  must  be  com- 
pared with  the  Indian  stock,  which  as  a  rule  was  about 
the  base  from  which  they  bred. 

In  1861  the  state  board  of  agriculture  was  organ- 
ized under  an  act  of  the  legislature,  but  the  manage- 
ment was  not  successful.  It  was  exclusively  in  the 
hands  of  the  farmers,  who  did  not  show  themselves  to 
be  adepts  in  finance.  The  yearly  meetings  became 
less  and  less  interesting,  until  at  last  they  were  aban- 
doned. In  1884  it  was  revived  under  a  remodeled 
commission,  of  which  Mr  De  Lashmutt,  an  appointee 
of  the  governor,  was  one.  The  grangers  were  opposed 
to  the  new  regime,  but  seeing  the  annual  fair  attract- 
ing attention,  eliciting  interest,  and  by  being  conducted 


VAN  B.  DE  LASHMUTT.  647 

on  strictly  business  principles,  accomplishing  in  a  high 
degree  the  very  things  that  it  was  originally  organized 
to  do,  they  acquiesced,  and  cooperated.  The  chief 
recreating  agency  in  all  this  was  Mr  De  Lashmutt, 
to  whom  the  credit  is  largely  due  for  the  interest 
manifested  in  and  the  usefulness  of  the  state  agricul- 
tural association. 

For  the  purpose  of  introducing  and  encouraging 
the  importation  of  blooded  stock,  and  educating  the 
people  thereupon,  and  for  establishing  headquarters 
where  breeders  could  not  only  see  but  also  make  selec-  t 
tions  of  the  best  stock  for  breeding  purposes,  Mr  De 
Lashmutt  interested  himself  in  and  procured  the 
organization  of  the  domestic  fat-stock  show  in  1884. 
He  has  been  president  of  the  organization  from  the 
beginning.  The  extraordinary  success  of  this  enter- 
prise from  the  outset  culminated  in  the  North  Pacific 
Industrial  association,  the  exposition  of  which  in  1889 
at  Portland  was  the  most  striking  exhibit  of  industrial 
life  ever  made  in  the  north  Pacific  states.  Mr  De 
Lashmutt' s  continuous  and  active  official  connection 
with  this  association  from  its  inception  was  very  help- 
ful towards  putting  it  on  a  good  footing  and  making 
its  first  exhibit  so  creditable.  He  was  its  first  pres- 
ident and  afterward  continued  a  member  of  the 
executive  committee. 

In  1886,  when  the  Coeur  d'Alene  mining  region 
was  explored,  Mr  De  Lashmutt  was  among  the  first 
in  Portland  to  manifest  appreciation  of  the  district  by 
engaging  in  the  development  of  its  silver  and  lead 
and  gold  mines.  He  acquired  and  retains  a  controlling 
interest  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  the  Granite,  the  Stem- 
winder,  the  Inez,  the  California  and  the  Alma  and 
Nellie  Wood,  and  is  president  of  each  of  the  six 
companies  developing  them.  One  of  these  companies 
paid  a  dividend  during  1889  of  $40,000  and  another 
$35,000,  and  they  are  all  recognized  in  that  section 
of  the  country  as  producing  mines.  Much  outlay 
was  required  for  machinery  and  some  extraordinary 


648  GOVERNMENT-OREGON. 

expense  on  account  of  the  peculiarity  of  topography, 
but  their  development  promises  great  profit  to  Mr 
De  Lashmutt  and  large  benefit  to  the  general  public. 
This  feature  of  the  matter  is  very  gratifying  to  him, 
for  while  he  is  not  so  unselfish  as  not  to  be  laboring 
for  himself,  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  him  that  in  working 
out  his  ambition  he  is  at  the  same  time  promoting 
the  common  welfare.     As  a  rule  the  ores  of  the  Coeur 
d'Aldne  are  silver-lead  and  of  low  grade,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  transportation  was  vital;   unless  the  lowest 
rate  could  be  had,  work  on  the  mines  would  cease. 
In  other   words,   a  high   rate  of  transportation  was 
simply  prohibitory ;  hence  Mr  De  Lash  mutt's  attitude 
regarding  the  joint  lease  of  the  Oregon  Railway  and 
Navigation  company's  road  to  the  Union  Pacific  and 
Northern  Pacific  railroads  can  be  readily  understood. 
Between  these  two  lessors,  the  former  having  control 
of  all  the  territory  lying   south  of  the  Snake   river 
and  the  latter  all  that  lying  north  and   east  of  it, 
competition    in    Coeur  d'Alene   freight   would    have 
ceased,  and  that  country  in  which  the  development 
of  vast  quantities   of  low-grade  ore  has  been   of  so 
much  general  benefit,  would  have  been  kept  back  at 
least  ten  years,  and  possibly  for  an  indefinite  period. 
Foreseeing  this  danger,  Mr  De  Lashmutt,  while  others 
simply  protested  and  argued,  obtained  an  injunction 
against   the  consummation  of  the   lease   on  grounds 
both  of  statutory  law  and  public  policy.     He  had  a 
hard  struggle  against  Yillard  and  his  entire  following, 
but  he  succeeded  in  forestalling  the  monopoly  which 
would  have  tied  up  the  country.     The  result  of  his 
energy  and  ability  is  to  be  seen  in  the  completion  of 
the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  company's  road, 
the  building  of  which  the  lease  was  intended  to  stop, 
and  a  road  finished  by  the  Northern  Pacific,  which 
two  roads  are  competing  for  the  carrying  trade  of  the 
mines. 

Mr  De  Lashmutt  has  not  sought  or  desired  political 
preferment,  though  ready  at  any  time  to  serve  city 


VAN  B.  DE  LASHMUTT.  649 

or  state.  In  1888  he  was  elected  by  the  city  council 
mayor  of  Portland,  and  was  afterward  elected  by  the 
people  by  a  larger  majority  than  had  ever  been 
received  before,  a  compliment  expressing  the  general 
appreciation  in  which  he  was  held.  But  this  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  for  his  administration  has  been 
public-spirited,  progressive  and  promotive  of  the  city's 
best  interests. 

In  February  1868  he  married  Miss  Maria  C.  Kelly, 
who  came  to  Oregon  with  her  parents  when  she  was 
a  child.  Her  father,  Albert  Kelly  of  Kentucky,  a 
methodist  clergyman,  now  deceased,  was  engaged  in 
farming  in  the  neighborhood  of  Portland  for  twenty - 
five  years.  Mr  and  Mrs  De  Lashmutt  have  two  sons 
and  one  daughter;  the  eldest  son  was  educated  in 
Europe,  the  younger  in  Portland,  while  their  daughter 
was  at  Wellesley  college  near  Boston. 

Mr  De  Lashmutt  is  somewhat  above  medium  height, 
with  slender  but  well-knit  frame,  erect,  agile  and  quick 
in  speech.  His  face  expresses  intellectuality,  kindli- 
ness and  a  keen  sense  of  humor.  He  is  still  in  the 
prime  of  manhood,  giving  promise  of  even  greater 
things  for  himself  and  wider  usefulness  to  the  commu- 
nity. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

LIFE  OF  JOSEPH  SIMON. 

OREGON  AND  ENGLISH  STATESMEN — APPEARANCE— NATIVITY— BUSINESS 
CAREER— DOLPH,  BELLINGER,  MALLORY,  AND  SIMON— PORTLAND  CITY 
COUNCIL — CHAIRMAN  OF  REPUBLICAN  STATE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE — 
STATE  SENATOR — MEASURES. 

THOSE  who  are  in  the  habit  of  frequenting  the  halls 
of  legislation,  whether  in  Westminster  or  Washing- 
ton, Sacramento  or  Salem,  are  apt  to  observe,  as 
they  would  at  a  theatre,  the  appearance,  manner,  and 
characteristics  of  the  actors  in  the  political  drama. 
Entering  in  by-gone  years  the  strangers'  gallery  in 
the  house  of  commons,  for  instance,  the  visitor  who 
for  the  first  time  should  have  noticed  Lord  John 
Russell  would  see  a  small,  fragile,  unassuming  man, 
neatly  attired  in  black  and  with  snow-white  necktie. 
After  rising  to  speak  he  would  hear  but  the  most 
obvious  of  commonplaces,  and  those  uttered  in  a  thin 
monotonous  voice,  until  a  round  of  applause  and  a 
roar  of  laughter,  greeting  some  unexpected  shaft  of 
sarcasm,  to  which  his  previous  remarks  were  but  the 
stringing  of  the  bow,  would  be  the  first  intimation 

that   he  was  listening*  to    the    sfreat   liberal    leader. 

t* 
Among  those  who  are  sure  to  attract  the  attention  of 

visitors  to  the  senate-chamber  at  Salem  is  a  man  of 
plain,  unpretentious  manner,  a  little  below  medium 
height,  and  of  a  compact  and  well-knit  frame,  with 
regular  well-shaped  features,  lofty  forehead,  piercing 
brown  eyes,  and  dark  brown  beard.  Thus  appeared 

(650) 


;     :,,, 


JOSEPH  SIMON.  651 

Joseph  Simon,  who,  before  fairly  arriving  at  middle 
age,  had  already  won  a  commanding  position  in  the 
politics  as  well  as  in  the  legal  profession  of  the  state 
of  Oregon. 

A  German  by  birth,  and  the  oldest  of  four  chil- 
dren, his  native  town  being  Bechtheim,  where  his 
ancestors  lived  for  several  generations,  and  his  natal 
day  the  7th  of  February,  1851,  Joe  came  with  his 
parents  to  the  United  States  when  eighteen  months 
of  age,  and  in  this  country  his  brothers  and  sister 
were  born.  After  a  brief  residence  in  New  Orleans, 
the  family  removed  to  California,  and  thence,  in  1857, 
to  Portland,  where  his  father  engaged  in  business. 
Here  he  attended  school  until  his  fourteenth  year,  and 
had  no  further  opportunity  to  acquire  an  education; 
but  this  was  no  drawback  to  his  career,  for  he  was  ever 
a  thorough  student  and  apt  to  learn,  recognizing  that 
his  early  training  could  at  best  but  teach  him  how  to 
educate  himself. 

After  assisting  his  father  in  business  until  nineteen 
years  of  age,  he  resolved  to  make  his  own  way  in  life, 
partly  because,  through  business  depression,  his  ser- 
vices were  not  really  needed,  and  also  for  the  reason 
that  he  had  no  taste  for  mercantile  pursuits,  his  am- 
bition inclining  toward  the  profession  of  the  law. 
In  1870,  therefore,  he  entered  the  office  of  Mitchell 
&  Dolph,  and  after  two  years'  study,  was  admitted  to 
the  bar.  Soon  afterward  Mitchell  was  elected  United 
States  senator  for  Oregon,  whereupon  the  partner- 
ship was  dissolved,  and  on  February  1,  1873,  a  new 
firm  was  established  in  which  Mr  Simon  became  a 
member,  under  the  style  of  Dolph,  Bronaugh,  Dolph 
&  Simon.  This  firm,  continued  in  existence  until 
February  1883,  when  it  was  dissolved  by  the  with- 
drawal of  Judge  Bronaugh.  J.  N.  Dolph,  who  had 
just  previously  been  elected  to  the  national  senate, 
also  shortly  thereafter  retired  from  the  firm,  and 
thereupon  the  present  firm  of  Dolph,  Bellinger,  Mai- 
lory  &  Simon  was  constituted.  Thus,  when  but 


652  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

twenty-two  years  of  age,  admitted  into  the  leading 
law-firm  in  Portland,  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to 
state  that,  with  his  acknowledged  ability,  and  the 
patient  study  which  he  devoted  to  all  his  cases,  Mr 
Simon's  professional  career  has  been  a  most  success- 
ful one. 

In  1877  Mr  Simon  was  elected  to  the  city  council 
of  Portland,  and  during  his  three  years'  term,  during 
the  frequent  absence  of  the  mayor,  Mr  Simon  was  in- 
variably selected  to  serve  as  president  of  the  council, 
and  acting  mayor  of  the  city.  Though  always  inter- 
ested in  politics,  for  which  he  has  not  only  the  talent, 
but  the  tact,  which  counts  for  more  than  talent,  it 
was  not  until  1878  that  he  appeared  as  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  political  arena.  In  that  year  he  was 
chosen  secretary  of  the  republican  state  central  com- 
mittee, and  to  him,  though  its  youngest  member,  the 
entire  management  of  the  campaign  was  entrusted. 
In  1880,  1884,  and  1886,  he  was  selected  as  chairman 
of  the  same  committee,  and  was  placed  in  charge  both 
of  the  national  and  state  elections  in  Oregon.  The 
year  1880  was  the  first  one  in  which  a  republican 
legislature  was  elected  in  Oregon  for  many  years, 
and  to  Mr  Simon's  efforts  the  success  of  the  ticket 
was  largely  due.  In  the  years  1880,  1884,  and  1888, 
he  was  also  elected  to  the  state  senate  from  Multno- 
mah  county,  making  for  him  a  continuous  service  of 
twelve  years  in  that  body.  During  his  service  in  the 
state  senate,  he  displayed  his  good  feeling  toward  the 
members  of  the  firm  with  whom  he  studied  law,  by 
voting  for  and  assisting  in  the  election  of  both  sena- 
tors, Dolph  and  Mitchell.  As  a  legislator  he  has 
always  rendered  most  faithful  service,  and  during  his 
long  service  in  the  state  senate  he  has  had  much  to 
do  with  shaping  the  legislation  of  the  state;  all 
measures  that  were  beneficial  to  the  state  always 
found  in  him  a  ready  and  zealous  supporter.  In  the 
legislature  of  1882  he  drew  up  and  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  a  bill  creating  a  paid  fire  department  for  the 


JOSEPH  SIMON.  653 

city  of  Portland,  in  which  he  had  always  taken  an 
active  interest  while  it  was  under  the  volunteer  sys- 
tem, being  president  of  the  fire  department  and  also 
president  of  one  of  the  companies  for  many  years,  and 
up  to  the  time  of  the  extinction  of  the  volunteer 
system.  Another  bill  of  his  introduction  was  one. 
abolishing  the  fees  of  witnesses  in  criminal  cases 
pending  in  inferior  courts  in  his  county,  which  had 
before  been  extravagantly  high,  and  a  source  of  great 
corruption,  thereby  saving  the  county  enormous  sums 
of  money  annually. 

Among  the  great  number  of  important  measures 
introduced  in  the  legislature  and  passed  through  the 
efforts  of  Mr  Simon  was  one  providing  an  efficient 
mechanics'  lien  law  for  laborers,  material-men,  etc., 
which  was  the  first  adequate  protection  afforded  that 
class  of  people.  He  also  introduced  and  succeeded  in 
passing  a  bill  authorizing  the  construction  of  a  rail- 
road bridge  across  the  Willamette  river  between  the 
cities  of  Portland  and  East  Portland,  and  the  mag- 
nificent steel  railroad  bridge,  erected  by  the  Oregon 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company,  spanning  the  Wil- 
lamette river  stands  as  a  monument  to  his  efforts. 
This  measure  was  bitterly  opposed  during  its  passage 
through  the  legislature  by  the  governor  and  finally 
vetoed  by  him,  but  through  the  efforts  of  Mr  Simon 
was  again  passed  over  the  veto  by  a  two-thirds  vote 
of  the  legislature.  Another  bill  which  he  succeeded 
in  passing  provided  for  the  leasing  of  the  Oregon  Rail- 
way and  Navigation  Company's  railroad  system  to  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  a  measure  that  the 
people  of  the  entire  state  deem  of  incalculable  benefit. 

During  the  special  session  of  1885  he  framed  and 
passed  a  bill  whereby  the  control  of  the  police  de- 
partment was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  mayor 
and  council  of  the  city  of  Portland,  and  entrusted  to 
a  board  of  commissioners.  Mr  Simon  was  appointed 
by  the  governor  of  the  state  a  member  of  this  com- 
mission, and  was  elected  by  his  associates  president 


654  GOVERNMENT— OREGON. 

of  the  board.  In  the  session  of  1889  he  was  elected 
and  served  with  marked  superiority  over  all  who  had 
preceded  him  in  the  office  as  president  of  the  senate, 
winning  the  esteem  and  good-will  of  every  member 
by  the  ability  and  fairness  with  which  he  presided 
over  that  body.  Throughout  his  political  and  busi- 
ness career,  Mr  Simon  has  been  noted  as  a  hard 
worker,  a  man  gifted  with  remarkable  shrewdness, 
intelligence,  versatility,  and  a  keen  insight  into  hu- 
man nature.  Still  almost  a  young  man,  and  endowed 
with  remarkable  vitality,  endurance,  energy,  and  fer- 
tility of  resource,  he  has  before  him  an  assured  and 
perhaps  brilliant  future,  in  which  his  efforts  in  behalf 
of  his  adopted  state  and  his  adopted  country  will,  it  is 
hoped,  be  as  much  appreciated  in  the  future  as  they 
have  been  in  the  past. 


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